This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

 

Readings

LEC # READINGS
1-2

Aristotle. Politics. Book 5.1.

Webster, Noah. "Revolution." An American Dictionary of the English Language. 1st ed. New York, NY: S. Converse, 1828.

"Revolution." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Buy at Amazon Williams, Raymond, ed. "Revolution." Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1985. ISBM: 9780195204698.

Buy at Amazon Hawkes, James A. "Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party, with a Memoir of George R. T. Hewes." From Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris. The Spirit of Seventy-Six. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1967. ISBN: 9780785814634.

Definitions of revolution (PDF)

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Excerpts from The Communist Manifesto. The Communist League, February 21, 1848. (PDF)

Primary documents from the Boston tea party (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)

3-5

Buy at Amazon Pomeroy, Sarah B., et al. A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 110-149. ISBN: 9780195156812.

Aristotle. The Athenian Constitution. Parts 1-41.

6

Plutarch. Life of Solon. Sections 1-3, 13-25.

Buy at Amazon Wallace, Robert W. "Revolutions and a New Order in Solonian Athens and Archaic Greece." Chapter 3 in Raaflaub, Kurt A., et al. Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780520245624.

7

"Herodotus." Histories. Book V, on Athens.

Buy at Amazon Ober, Josiah. "The Athenian Revolution of 508/7 B.C.: Violence, Authority, and the Origins of Democracy." Chapter 4 in The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780691001906.

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9-10

Plutarch. Excerpts from Life of Cimon and Life of Pericles.

Raaflaub, Kurt A. "Power in the Hands of the People: Foundations of Athenian Democracy."; Ober, Josiah. "Revolution Matters: Democracy as Demotic Action (A Response to Kurt A. Raaflaub.)"; Raaflaub, Kurt A. "The Thetes and Democracy (A Response to Josiah Ober.)" Chapters 3-5 in Morris, Ian, et al. Democracy 2500? Questions and Challenges. Archaeological Society of America Colloquia and Conference Papers, no. 2, 1997.

11

Dickinson, John. "Letters of a Farmer in Pennsylvania." Letters II and III.

English Bill of Rights, 1689.

Continental Congress: Resolution and Preface of May 10-15, 1776. (PDF)

Instructions of the Town of Boston to its Representatives in the General Court, May 23, 1776. (PDF)

Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776.

Declaration of Independence, 1776.

Preamble, Part the First, and introduction of Part the Second from the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780.

U.S. Constitution, 1787.

12

Social Causes of the Revolution

Paris and the Politics of Rebellion

The Monarchy Falls

War, Terror, and Resistance

"Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen." National Constituent Assembly of France, August 26, 1789.

de Gouges, Olympe. "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Female Citizen." France, 1791.

French Constitution, 1791.

"Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Citizens." (PDF)

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14-15

Slavery and the Haitian Revolution

Buy at Amazon Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. "Introduction: Revolution, Emancipation, and Independence." From Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. ISBN: 9780312415013.

Haitian Declaration of Independence, 1804.

Haitian Constitution, 1805.

16-18

Buy at Amazon Chernyshevsky, Nikolay Gavrilovich, et al. What is to be Done? Part 2: xviii, Part 3: iv, xxix. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780801495472.

Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friedrich. The Communist Manifesto. The Communist League, February 21, 1848. (PDF)

Herzen, Aleksandr. From The Other Shore, and The Russian People and Socialism, an Open Letter to Jules Michelet. New York, NY: G. Braziller, 1956, pp. 165-208.

Eisenstein, Sergei. Battleship Potemkin. Goskino, 1925.

Trotsky, Leon. 1905. New York, NY: Random House, 1971.

Visualizing Cultures, Units on Russo-Japanese War

19-21

Buy at Amazon Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 15-119. ISBN: 9780199237678.

Buy at Amazon Brooks, Jeffrey, and Georgiy Chernyavskiy. Lenin and the Making of the Soviet State. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006, pp. 44-60. ISBN: 9780312412661.

Buy at Amazon Gorky, Maxim. Untimely Thoughts. November 7, 10-12, 19 (20, 23-25, December 2), 1917. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780300060690.

Buy at Amazon Reed, John. Ten Days that Shook the World. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 2007, pp. 654-684. ISBN: 9780141442129.

22-24

Buy at Amazon Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong. New York, NY: Viking, 1999, pp. 1-101. ISBN: 9780670886692.

Buy at Amazon Xun, Lu. "Medicine." From Selected Stories of Lu Hsun. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2003. ISBN: 9780393008487.

Buy at Amazon Cheng, Pei-Kai, et al. The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1999, pp. 139-149, 184-189, 197-206, 238-241, and 257-262. ISBN: 9780393973723.

25-27

Buy at Amazon Cheek, Timothy. Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002, pp. 41-75. ISBN: 9780312256265.

Buy at Amazon Harrison, Henrietta. The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005, pp. 51-158. ISBN: 9780804750691.

28-29

Hinton, Carma, Geremie Barme, and Richard Gordon. Morning Sun. Brookline, MA: Long Bow Group, 2003.

Buy at Amazon Spence, Jonathan D. Mao Zedong. New York, NY: Viking, 1999, pp. 102-178. ISBN: 9780670886692.

Buy at Amazon Cheek, Timothy. Mao Zedong and China's Revolutions: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002, pp. 123-179, and 216-219. ISBN: 9780312256265.

30

U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIV.

Roosevelt, Franklin D. "First Inaugural Address." Delivered to the nation, March 4, 1933.

Hayden, Tom, et al. "Port Huron Statement." Port Huron, MI: Students for a Democratic Society, June 15, 1962.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "I Have a Dream." Delivered to a freedom rally, Washington, D.C. August 28, 1963.

Johnson, Lyndon B. "To Fulfill These Rights." Howard University Commencement address, Washington, D.C. June 4, 1965.

"NOW Statement of Purpose." Washington, D.C.: National Organization of Women, October 29, 1966.

31 Buy at Amazon Reagan, Ronald, et al. Reagan In His Own Hand. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2001, pp. 4-15, 18-19, 442-443, and 448-453. ISBN: 9780743219389.
32

Buy at Amazon Reagan, Ronald, et al. Reagan In His Own Hand. New York, NY: The Free Press, 2001, pp. 224-263, 278-287, 294-295, 298-301, 350-363, and 416-419. ISBN: 9780743219389.

Greider, William. "The Education of David Stockman." Atlantic Monthly, December 1981.

Buy at Amazon Falwell, Jerry. Listen, America. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1981, pp. 17-23. ISBN: 9780553149982.

Reagan, Ronald. "Speech Delivered to the International Business Council, September 9, 1980." Vital Speeches of the Day 46 (October 1, 1980): 738-741.

Carter, Jimmy. "The Crisis of Confidence." Delivered to the nation, July 15, 1979.

33

Reagan, Ronald. "Farewell Address." Delivered to the nation, January 11, 1989.

"Republican Contract with America." U.S. Republican party, 1994.

Clinton, Bill. "Third State of the Union Address." Delivered to the nation, January 24, 1995.

Buy at Amazon Reagan, Ronald. Selections from The Reagan Diaries. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 2007. ISBN: 9780060876005.

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Reagan, Ronald. "Evil Empire." Delivered to British Parliament, June 8, 1982.

———. "Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals." Orlando, FL, March 8, 1983.

Buy at Amazon ———. Selections from The Reagan Diaries. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 2007. ISBN: 9780060876005.

Hamilton, Lee H., and Daniel K. Inouye. "Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair." House Report No. 100-433, Senate Report No. 100-216. Washington DC: United States Congress, 1987.

36-37

Buy at Amazon "June Fourth." Chapter 10 in Zhang, Liang, et al. The Tiananmen Papers. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2001. ISBN: 9781586481223.

Buy at Amazon Han, Minzhu. Cries for Democracy: Writings and Speeches from the 1989 Chinese Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 126-163. ISBN: 9780691008578.

"The Cold War is Over." New York Times, April 2, 1989.

Gorbachev, Mikhail. "Speech on Perestroika." 1988.

Bush, George H. W. "Towards a New World Order." Delivered to U.S. Congress, September 11, 1990.

Buy at Amazon Ash, Timothy G. Selections from The Magic Lantern: the Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. New York, NY: Random House, 1993. ISBN: 9780679740483.

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