Average customer rating:
- The Rebel meets every expectation set out by The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus
- Camus eclipses nihilism and brings news of a new age!
- An inquiry into the ethics of rebellion
- Realistic Goals
- The Logic of Rebellion
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The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt
Albert Camus
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Similar Items:
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The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays
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Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays
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The Stranger
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The Plague
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The Fall
ASIN: 0679733841
Release Date: 1992-01-01 |
Book Description
By one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of our century, The Rebel is a classic essay on revolution. For Albert Camus, the urge to revolt is one of the "essential dimensions" of human nature, manifested in man's timeless Promethean struggle against the conditions of his existence, as well as the popular uprisings against established orders throughout history. And yet, with an eye toward the French Revolution and its regicides and deicides, he shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny. As old regimes throughout the world collapse, The Rebel resonates as an ardent, eloquent, and supremely rational voice of conscience for our tumultuous times.
Translated from the French by Anthony Bower.
Customer Reviews:
The Rebel meets every expectation set out by The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus.......2006-11-06
Camus' The Rebel is yet another brilliant outcry of the human conscience, the urge to revolt and man's timeless struggle against the conditions of his existence. Albert Camus is one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of this century. The Rebel is a definite must read for lovers of L'etranger and Myth of Sisyphus. Camus maintains his signature style of short, simple yet hard-hitting sentences that leave a lot to the imagination, thus giving the reader a chance to re-create their our vision. One of the best writers to come out of France, Camus' sharp eye toward the French Revolution shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny. Much like his predecessors such as Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, Albert Camus writes with an unshakable decency and his work is eloquent and supremely rational.
Camus eclipses nihilism and brings news of a new age!.......2005-10-03
I first became interested in Albert Camus after reading a quote from The Rebel online. "I rebel, therefore we exist" was the quote, and I must admit that, after reading the book, there has never been anything truer written. When I was in a bookstore a few months ago I found a copy of The Rebel, which is apparently a rare sight these days, since The Rebel is often ignored. Camus is one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, so why would one of his masterpieces be ignored?
It has been ignored, from what I can gather, because it is a philosophical work in which Camus pulls no punches and examines thoroughly why the excessive crime and violence of our era exist. Camus explains how, in both philosophy and politics, the reigning attitude has been one of nihilism for the past two centuries. This nihilism, being necessarily without an aim, leads to dictatorship and gross amounts of suffering for humans, no matter what principles it claims on the surface. Camus systematically destroys those who have used the philosophies of Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, surrealism, u.s.w., to justify their murderous plots.
Camus proposes that instead of nihilism and murder, we take to heart the ancient concepts of moderation and responsibility. Camus' destruction of modern governents and his proposals of these ancient ideas seem to have made this book unpopular. In this era of oppression, it is easy to ignore what offends us or makes us think. Camus gives the reader no choice. He must either raise a defiant fist to the giants of power, or he must give way to these minds that are utterly without scruples. I admire Camus deeply because of this--he has summed up the ideas I have been carrying around for years--but some will be deeply hurt by his comments. I leave you with a final thought: everyone is partly to blame for the state of the present and the future. You have the choice to make it either good or bad.
An inquiry into the ethics of rebellion.......2005-07-07
This book followed his 'The Myth of Sisyphus'. Camus explains in the beginning that while his previous work was about the question of suicide, this one is about the other aspect of taking human lives - other people's lives (murder). The book however is not so much about murder, as it is about the ethics of rebellion.
At a deeper ideological level, Camus was reacting to the excesses of Soviet style communism with which he disagreed. He felt that rebellion is always at the risk of falling prey to the very tyranny it revolts against and destroys.
Camus however does not believe that rebellion is therefore not desirable. His humanitarian ideals harmonize with the dream of rebellion. So he tries to answer the question of how rebellion can escape falling prey to tyranny, albiet unsuccessfully, by taking the examples of Russian nihilists who fought tyranny through murder, but nevertheless punished themsleves for that act (because the act of murder becomes tyrranny if routinized).
In all his works, Camus is generally good with analysis but poor in his conclusions. This book is brilliant for its analysis of the ethics of rebellion and the dilemmas of a rebel. It raises important questions and leaves you free to find your own answers. That also harmonizes better with the spirit of existentialism.
Realistic Goals.......2004-07-01
"The Rebel" is really an extended essay by Camus concerning the rejection of religion as a basis for political and social legitimacy in the West, and the consequences of that rejection.
Camus examines the reasons for rebellion - socio-economic and political injustices could no longer be explained by reference to God's will. If such injustices pertain, then how can God be "just"? Therefore does God exist? Camus then goes on to examine, essentially, what a mess has been created by the attempts to replace deism with some other form of over-arching belief: from the exaltation of rationalism in the French Revolution, the primacy of the law, romantic Socialism, Communism, and Fascism. Presciently, he also refers to the limitations of economic materialism. None of these have succeeded in removing injustices, many of them justify repression by promising a just future which can in reality never be attained.
This is an interesting, accessible book. Camus's ultimate conclusions are worth a close read in that they affirm the value of life in its own terms and serve as a wake-up call to what is and is not really achievable for humanity as a whole.
G Rodgers
The Logic of Rebellion.......2003-12-19
Without straying into the dogamtism or the sentinmental romantic mindset that Camus warns of, this book had a profound affect on me as it helped me reconcile my 'reasoned' agnosticism and irreligion with my 'intuitive' socialism. I have since come to the conclusion (with the help of Camus) that both the above aspects of my world-view are logical, and perhaps most importantly,that it is necessary to temper whatever ideolgies you happen to find yourself agreeing with, your own intuitive morality.
This is in my opinion the crux of The Rebel as Camus examines the history of religous (metaphysical) and social rebellion. From the Marquis De Sade and Neitzche in the former to the French Revolution and USSR in the later.
Camus seems to have started from a point of being at a loss to explain the seeming contradictions in apparently well meaning revolution's that dole out (or promise freedom over here) and practice tyranny over there. Camus shows the depth and originality of his thinking by showing that these contradictions can be seen as the logical conclusions to total obediance to the doctrines of Marx, Hegel and Rosseau amoungst others ( these contradictions are found in the works themselves of Marx et al as these thinkers have been 'slaves' to their own logic which can be seen as analagous to Weber's notion of 'over-rationalism' and the 'iron cage' ). The result is a wise and profound analysys of social rebellion and a proscription for future reform as well as presenting a kind of 'eudaimon' for the contemporary existentialist.
Book Description
The 1956 Hungarian revolution, and its suppression by the U.S.S.R., was a key event in the cold war, demonstrating deep dissatisfaction with both the communist system and old-fashioned Soviet imperialism. But now, fifty years later, the simplicity of this David and Goliath story should be revisited, according to Charles Gati's new history of the revolt.
Denying neither Hungarian heroism nor Soviet brutality, Failed Illusions nevertheless modifies our picture of what happened. Imre Nagy, a reform communist who headed the revolutionary government and turned into a genuine patriot, could not rise to the occasion by steering a realistic course between his people’s demands and Soviet geopolitical and ideological interests. The United States was all talk, no action, while Radio Free Europe simultaneously backed the insurgents' unrealizable demands and opposed Nagy. In the end, the Soviet Union followed its imperial impulse instead of seeking a political solution to the crisis in the spirit of de-Stalinization.
Failed Illusions is based on extensive archival research, including the CIA’s operational files, and hundreds of interviews with participants in Budapest, Moscow, and Washington. Personal observations by the author, a young reporter in Budapest in 1956, bring the tragic story vividly to life.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful and disturbing.......2007-02-02
This is the first book I've read on the Hungarian Revolt, but I found it well doicumented, insightful and disturbing. I've read alot of books on history and this was truly riveting. I, like so many Americans, am very ignorant of Eastern European History and felt truly enlightened by this analysis. I also felt it particularly relevant to what is happening today. Our country's inaction then and and our actions today show little understanding of the peoples or culture or politics of other societies. We in this country have a great heritage and enlighted leaders,such as Lincoln, who set up a government we can be proud of. However, today we are acting in a way that shows blindness and misguidedness.. We have shown again that we have not learned anything from events such as the Hungarian Revolt. Our leaders want to spread democracy but are doing it in a way that is both ignorant and arrogant. We did it then and are doing it now.
I'm glad a man such as Mr. Gati was able to immigrate to this country and contribute to it. I look forward to readin more books by him.
Excellent analysis of the Hungarian-Soviet-Western interaction.......2006-12-04
Gati's book is written with the perspective of the forces at work in Budapest, Moscow and Washington before and during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He briefly recounts his own experience as a young Hungarian journalist during the 12 days of the Revolution, and then proceeds to profile in detail the events and personalities of that time. He manages to capture the spontaneity of the event, and how leaders in the three capitals misinterpreted and finally acted (or failed to act), often with limited understanding. The book is well-researched (almost every page has footnotes), and despite criticism by an earlier commenter, is quite in line with more recent interpretations of the 1956 events, using recently released Soviet, American and Hungarian archives, which were not available to earlier authors. As it has been mentioned by another reviewer, it is a human story, not an encyclopedic one, and I found it engrossing.
Nothing new in Gati's "new history" of the Hungarian Revolution.......2006-11-12
Gati's treatment of the Hungarian Revolution and its actors gives the impression that he wrote a book with preconceived conclusions supported by selected documentation and by omission of those not fitting in his concept. Exploitation of the 50th anniversary of the seminal historic event is evident in the timing of publication. He treats Imre Nagy, the Freedom Fighters and America unfairly. He unrealistically expects the revolutionaries to be practitioners of real politic. His assumption of Soviet willingness to compromise, to meaningfully revise its relationship with its satellites seemed so hopefully evidential only in the flashlight of the revolution. It is surprising that Gati is still dazzled.
There is very little new in Gati's "new history" of the Hungarian Revolution that is significant. Robert Murphy in his autobiography: Diplomat among warriors explained the American inaction regarding the Hungarian Revolution in a few pages more concisely, with more insight than Gati does in his book. There is no surprise that Gati neglects to mention him and his views.
Murphy concludes his assessment of why the Hungarian Revolution was defeated, or in better words, why it was left to be defeated, with this remarkably humble statement:
"For sheer perfidy and relentless suppression of a courageous people longing for their liberty, Hungary will always remain a classic symbol. Perhaps history will demonstrate that the free world could have intervened to give the Hungarians the liberty they sought, but none of us in the State Department had the skill or the imagination to devise a way."
This evaluation remains the most authoritative, most honest, factually correct and durable judgment of American - or for that matter the free World's - inability to
act at a time when action was warranted.
A remarkable and exceptional book.......2006-10-02
When I read Charles Gati's prize winning "Hungary and the Soviet Bloc," I then thought that he had written the last and best word on our understanding of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 during the Cold War. Then, unexpectedly, several years later the Berlin Wall came down, Hungary and the USSR's East European satellites regained independence, and heretofore closed Cold War archives began to open. From archives in Budapest and Moscow as well as from dozens of interviews with participants of '56 both East and West, Professor Gati has written a classic of Cold War history and analysis which arguably will become the definitive account of the multi-sided, tragic events of 1956 in Hungary. No stone has been left unturned -- the author has read the minutes of the Politburo meetings in the Soviet Union and Hungary, as well as the interrogation and trial transcripts from the last days before his execution of Imre Nagy, former Prime Minister of Hungary. This fluently written, masterfully organized, and exeptionally well integrated small volume deserves to sit on the Cold War history shelf along with Allison's "Essence of Decision," the study of another major event of the era, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In his overarching Introduction, Gati includes a brief but fascinating autobiographical recounting of his own experiences in Budapest as a young reporter during the tumultuous years after his high school graduation in 1953 to his flight with tens of thousands of Hungarians across the Austrian border after Soviet troops crushed the revolution in late 1956.
The author's thesis is the existence of the possibility of an alternative "limitationist" approach to demands, expectations, methods, and outcomes by all parties to the challenges of Hungary '56. Instead, however, as is vividly recounted in the book, the Hungarian leadership, the Budapest insurgents, Moscow, and Washington displayed variably, vacillating responses, revolutionary romanticism, imperial intransigence, and absolutist anti-communism, all of which produced disaster and great bloodshed for Budapest and its population 50 years ago this early November. As the author makes clear, it need not necessarily have ended in a zero-sum tragedy, but with some restraint on all sides might well have become a non-zero-sum outcome.
All parties to the failed revolution come in for well deserved criticism -- Nagy for his ineffectiveness as a leader (his portrait from the 1930s to his death in 1958 is the most complete and nuanced account of a foreign leader I have ever read), the young Hungarian insurgents for their unbridled demands and intemperate actions, Washington for the hypocrisy of its East European policies of "liberation" and "rollback," and most of all the Soviet Union for the extraordinary brutality and violence it rained down upon the people of Budapest.
In his splendid Epilogue, Charles Gati's well told story of the "failed illusions" of a half century ago, as well as his own life as a former Hungarian citizen, came full circle when he witnessed Nagy's cermonial reburial in Budapest's Heroes Square late spring 1989, with the demise of the Communist system in Hungary and East Europe in sight just months away. This is a remarkable and exceptional book.
A HumanJourney.......2006-09-29
Take the experts' word that this study is a reliable, extensive, and insightful account of the 1956 Hungarian Revolt. What strikes me is the personal element. We go from the recollections of a young, unsophisticated journalist of 22, caught in the tide of momentous events he does not understand, to the retrospection of a highly sophisticated scholar revisiting those events and doing his very best to look behind history's curtain to resolve their meaning. It is a gripping, honest, and personal account, rendered with the binocularity of five decades of study. A century from now, this will still be the book to read, not just for the facts but also for the feel of one of the 20th century's signal struggles.
Book Description
This volume presents the first full-scale treatment of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home. Jones describes how, in 1839, Joseph Cinque led a revolt on the Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in the Caribbean. The seizure of the ship by an American naval vessel near Montauk, Long Island, the arrest of the Africans in Connecticut, and the Spanish protest against the violation of their property rights created an international controversy. The Amistad affair united Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists who put the "law of nature" on trial in the United States by their refusal to accept a legal system that claimed to dispense justice while permitting artificial distinctions based on race or color. The mutiny resulted in a trial before the U.S. Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams against the federal government. Jones vividly recaptures this compelling drama--the most famous slavery case before Dred Scott--that climaxed in the court's ruling to free the captives and allow them to return to Africa.
Customer Reviews:
Really Poor!.......2005-01-10
Pay close attention to the other reviewer's comments. This IS one dry, boring book. And that is a shame because this event is a signal event in the course of our Nation's history. This 1839 mutiny by black Africans aboard a Spanish slave ship resulted in a trial before the US Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams, who came out of retirement to defend the Africans, against the federal government. Importantly, this trial was held during the time in which the Gag Rule was in effect within the United States Congress, i.e., it was illegal to simply speak about slavery within Congress.
It is a shame that this, the most famous and compelling slavery case before Dred Scott, is dealt with so poorly in this book
Great story robbed of its impact.......2004-02-17
Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy by Howard Jones.
In July 1839, a group of Africans that had been illegally imported into Cuba used violence to take over the Amistad while it was transporting them from Havana to Puerto Príncipe. In August, the Amistad and the Africans were seized off Long Island. These events set off a judicial, legislative, and diplomatic battle that would not be completely resolved until the Civil War ended slavery in the United States. Mutiny on the Amistad looks at the laws, issues, and people involved in this landmark case.
The key questions are: Who has jurisdiction over the case? Are the Africans legally slaves? If so, who has the rights to them? Are they "salvage," like the Amistad? Will the case worsen the relations with Spain and strengthen Great Britain's claims in Cuba? Will it become the catalyst the abolitionists need to give them and their cause credibility with the northern public? And how will Martin Van Buren's administration deal with such a controversial case in a re-election year?
While the case attracted the attention of abolitionists like Arthur and Lewis Tappan and John Quincy Adams; the administration of Martin Van Buren and even those of some of his successors; and several governments, including those of Spain and Great Britain, Jones's repetitive treatment of the story robs it of much of its drama. For example, he makes the declarative statement that the Van Buren administration's focus was solely on re-election and ensuring the Amistad case did not interfere with that objective more than a dozen times. Some of the primary source quotes do not seem well selected to expand upon the contemporary view; in too many cases, quotes consist of one or two words, such as "gross injustice," that are too out of context or are such common expressions that they become meaningless. The best quotes come, not from the case or the participants, but from the various southern, northern, and abolitionist publications; these headlines reveal contemporary perceptions, beliefs, and biases. As for the participants, the only voice that seems to express any passion is that of John Quincy Adams, who is clearly emotional about the abolitionist cause.
In the meantime, the voices of Joseph Cinqué and the rest of the Africans-the subjects of the entire controversy-are heard only rarely, primarily through letters to the abolitionists complaining about the poor conditions they are subjected to in prison. It is not clear if this is because their testimony was generally deemed irrelevant (they seldom speak for themselves) or if their feelings and thoughts are poorly documented because of the language and literacy barriers they initially face. Jones does try to interject them periodically, but during the long passages in which they are missing the reader feels as though the case has become an exercise in legal argument without victims.
Ultimately, it is not clear what the Amistad case accomplished. For many in the north, Cinqué and the other Africans are objects of both curiosity and sympathy, but it is not apparent that the Amistad case significantly advanced the cause of abolition-in itself an irony since Cinqué and company were never legally slaves (one point that the courts and even the district attorney agree upon). Jones asserts that the case raised public awareness of the conflict between natural law (such as man's right to freedom and to kill to obtain it) and positive law (such as that enabling slavery and preventing slaves from rebelling). The scope of Jones's research and quotations, save those from newspapers, does not support this; there is little presented to show that the case was discussed every day in ballrooms, parlors, and bars or that the general public's perception was permanently altered. What is clear, however, is the racism that is prevalent throughout. Even some of the abolitionists, most of whom are spiritual leaders who find slavery an abomination against God, do not consider Africans their equals.
The facts of the case are all here, along with much of the background. Some of the conclusions seem incomplete. Throughout, one gets the impression this could have been a shorter, more succinct, and, more importantly, a more dramatic and tightly argued book had Jones or his editor cut the repetitions, redundancies, and minutiae and focused on a more cohesive discussion of the relevant specifics of the case and its effects on the public, the U.S. government, and policy. As it is, in Jones's hands this case appears less interesting and less important historically than it probably was, and even the source of all this, Cinqué and his comrades, lose their three-dimensionality-their humanity, as it were. If you are interested in the Amistad case and in the story of the abolitionist movement, this is probably a must-read-but don't stop here.
Diane L. Schirf, 16 February 2004.
Dry, but informative........2000-05-08
I saw the movie, and it performed its function well: it piqued my interest. But, of course, being a dramatization, it was not bound by little things like facts; it took the basic story, and made it as interesting and dramatic as possible.
This caused me to develop an interest in the subject, and a curiosity as to what the actual truth of the story was, and this book served admirably to answer that question.
If you're interested in an entertaining story that has drama, characterization, and closure, see the movie. But if you're interested in historical facts, and literal truth rather than symbolic truth, read this book.
too long!.......2000-04-14
The book was great in explaining everything but things were too repetitive. The point could have gotten across through a much shorter version
Exceptional historical account of the Amistad........1999-01-07
Mutiny on the Amistad by Dr. Howard Jones is an exceptional piece of historical research. For the reader who wishes to read an exceptional historical treatise buy the book. One fully comprehends the the roles of Spain, England, the United States and the cruelty of the slave trade. After reading this book one can comprehend how race initially was and still is a significant factor in the cultural life and politics of the United States. Dr. Jones is to be congratulated for a balance historical presentation and insightful view of cultural history as well...if you are seriously interested in the events of the Amistad and the world that created this incident, you will greatly appreciate Dr. Jones' scholarship. I am grateful that a serious historian has given us such a fine account of the Amistad.
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Revolt in Paradise (Griffin Paperback)
K'Tut Tantri
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
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A House in Bali
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Bali: A Paradise Created
ASIN: 0517573733
Release Date: 1989-12-30 |
Book Description
Here is the stunning account of K'tut Tantri's life in Java as a young artist and later as a resistance fighter for Indonesian independence. 8-page black-and-white photo insert.
Customer Reviews:
worth reading.......2006-06-03
As a fan of historical fiction, I was greatly pleased to come across this book of historical...history? *grin* This autobiography is well written and compelling. Having lived in Indonesia for a number of years (and having visited Bali), I found it really fascinating. I think anyone would enjoy it, though. It's a great way to familiarize yourself with world history.
Very Interesting.......2001-04-19
Very good book. Tells a fascinating story about the author's life in Indonesia. Brave lady who was willing to risk everything for all she believed in.Vivid picture of Bali and the situation there, and the people and culture.
Customer Reviews:
North American Slavery in Hemespheric Perspective.......2003-10-28
The great thing about this book is the exceptionally concise contextualization of N. American slavery within the wider hemisphere. Genovese makes clear the uniqueness of this system, which might be summed up as follows: no other slave society existed in the midst of so many white people, who were well-armed, backed by a stable government, and relatively immune to foriegn intrigue. While one might debate the number of slave revolts in the U.S., I think that Genovese is correct that given the huge odds against a successful slave revolt, it's remarkable that the relatively few revolts that did occur are striking acts of human courage.
As far as the dialectical interpretation that Genovese pursues from "Roll, Jordan, Roll", well, good luck coming to your own terms with "accomodation" and "resistance." At times I find him maddening and at others quite wise. But the theoretical parts aren't what I'm particularly interested in at this point in my life. The opening chapter's comparative piece is factually grounded, broad ranging, and simply illuminating. Worth the read by all means.
HElpful.......2001-12-11
VEry helpful for school paper, info not found in other sources
The Limits of Genovese's Notions of Resistance.......2000-04-19
In his _Roll, Jordan, Roll_, Genovese presented the black experience of slavery as fundamentally determined by white power. Yes, slaves were able to "make" a world for themselves to a much greater extent than U.B. Phillips or Stanley Elkins had allowed, but they did so under the constraints of white hegemony as defined by Gramsci. The paternalistic system granted slaves spheres of a sort of autonomy in return for the base acceptance of master control. Black cultural constructions, however innovative and powerful, were constrained within bounds that prevented the power of the dominant class from ever being called into question. Black doings were rife with resistance acts, but their struggles were taken on in the master class' terms and thus failed to threaten its authority at an essential level. The few uprisings that were planned (and the fewer still that were carried out) were directed only towards escaping, not overturning, the system. The "day to day" resistance manifested in malingering, feigned illness or stupidity, theft, or murder, presupposed an accepted status quo that whites had violated and for which slaves could legitimately protest. Thus, resistance among slaves was at its crux limited and "accommodationist." Even open revolts, while they may have made whites afraid, stimulated them to make ameliorative "reforms," and partially shaken their myths of black docility, didn't operate outside of an understanding of slavery as part of the equation of life.
Genovese was criticized for making the conditions of the antebellum Chesapeake region normative for slavery as a whole. In attempting to explain the actions of slaves who did revolt frequently and violently, as was necessary when he shifted his gaze to the Caribbean in this book, however, Genovese only adjusted his understanding of the limits of resistance by expanding it. Significantly, hegemony played no explicit part in this larger schema: the complicated dialectic he described in the American South was replaced with a straightforward before and after scenario in the West Indies. Slave uprisings before 1804, the year of Haitian independence, were "restorationist" rebellions, in that they represented a rejection of the colonial world and an attempt to establish isolated African maroon communities that were fully separate from the slave societies from which they sprang. The revolt in St. Domingue, however, constituted a "revolution" for Genovese. Setting the events there between 1791 and 1804 firmly in the context of a "bourgeois-democratic revolutionary wave" beginning in Philadelphia in 1776 and continuing in France in 1789, he presented the Haitian Revolution as a part of a "modern" movement. Afterwards, slaves would no longer seek to establish "traditional" societies, but instead would break away from the "early maroon vision" and work to join the societies that had enslaved them, albeit on equal terms. St. Domingue represented a vital turning point in the direction of slave resistance in that it comprised a revolutionary bid for nationhood.
Accommodation on the mainland, it seems, was assimilation in the islands. In this book Genovese continues his search, at a fundamental level, for an explanation of resistance -its prevalence and nature in the Caribbean and its paucity and impotence on the mainland. His stories must end, however, with Toussaint or Lincoln respectively: blacks either forcibly pushed white ideology to its fullest implications, or waited for whites themselves to bestow its fruits upon them. While he grants slaves agency, clearly the important actors are white. Until "revolutionary" Haitians adopted and applied "white" ideas to overturn the slave system altogether, "restorationist" maroons and American slaves hedged in by paternalism were doomed to inhabit the limited spaces granted to them.
Of course, the slaves of St. Domingue didn't overturn the slave system, and Genovese's reasons for their failure suggest the limits of his approach. Despite the preeminent place he grants it in the history of slave uprisings, Genovese ultimately sees the Haitian Revolution as a flop. While Toussaint and his successors Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe worked to set up a nation state that participated in the world market with its bourgeois capitalist compatriots, the "counter-revolution" of later leaders such as Alexandre Pétion and Pierre Boyer relaxed the dictatorial discipline that had kept the Haitian masses on the sugar plantations. Thus released, Haitians succumbed to a "slave-bred land hunger" that drove them to acquire increasingly small plots of land, and "Haiti slipped into a system of peasant proprietorship and self-sufficiency -wonderful euphemisms for the poverty and wretchedness of bourgeois-egalitarian swindles- and the dream of a modern black state drowned in the tragic hunger of an ex-slave population for a piece of land and a chance to live in old ways or ways perceived as old." Genovese sees slavery as only a system of forced labor, albeit a peculiar one with a host of ideological ramifications including paternalism and Afro-Christian religion. Accepting Eric Williams' portrayal of the Atlantic slave system as a natural product of emergent Western capitalism, he describes the changes in that world as the products of forces (economic and ideological) generated by the market centered in Europe and operating through white minds, mouths, and hands.
Evidence that slaves operated outside this world or independent of its mandates disrupts this conception by suggesting that Genovese himself has become a victim of planter hegemony. If Europe could be present in the socio-political baggage brought by the colonists, why could not Africa have an equal presence in that brought by slaves? What meanings did slaves make of slavery? Others than those dictated to them? How did they understand their condition? Such questions illuminate the constraints of seeing slavery only as a system of labor and make new evidence valid in explorations of slave resistance as "accommodation," "restoration," or "revolution." These terms in Genovese's mouth mark his inability to process evidence of slave doings in terms other than those set out by whites. They beg for an account of the struggles of slaves as perceived by blacks themselves.
Book Description
Gabriel's Rebellion tells the dramatic story of what was perhaps the most extensive slave conspiracy in the history of the American South. Douglas Egerton illuminates the complex motivations that underlay two related Virginia slave revolts: the first, in 1800, led by the slave known as Gabriel; and the second, called the 'Easter Plot,' instigated in 1802 by one of his followers. Although Gabriel has frequently been portrayed as a messianic, Samson-like figure, Egerton shows that he was a literate and highly skilled blacksmith whose primary goal was to destroy the economic hegemony of the 'merchants,' the only whites he ever identified as his enemies. According to Egerton, the social, political, and economic disorder of the Revolutionary era weakened some of the harsh controls that held slavery in place during colonial times. Emboldened by these conditions, a small number of literate slaves—most of them highly skilled artisans—planned an armed insurrection aimed at destroying slavery in Virginia. The intricate scheme failed, as did the Easter Plot that stemmed from it, and Gabriel and many of his followers were hanged. By placing the revolts within the broader context of the volatile political currents of the day, Egerton challenges the conventional understanding of race, class, and politics in the early days of the American republic.
Customer Reviews:
Liberty or Death!.......2000-10-27
It is so refreshing to read a work by an academic historian that has clear points laid out in the introduction, cogent arguments that are supported in the body of the text, and a writing style mercifully free of mind-bending jargon . Egerton combines the best of social history (focus on everyday lives of non-elites) with a discussion of the political mood of young nation searching for its own definition(s) of freedom. I would heartily recommend this work for anyone attempting to understand slave resistance and the varieties of the slave "experience" in North America. This is a great addition to an already expansive literature on slavery, and I look forward to reading Egerton's recent work on Denmark Vesey.
A Must Read!.......2000-08-05
Egerton does a masterful job of placing slavery within the broad context of revolutinary America. Gabriel's rebellion was born not only out of the opression of slavery but out of the political theory embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the conflict betweent the Republicans and Federalists to determine whether those principals would be part of American life. To a large extent, Gabriel was doomed because he believed that the political rhetoric of the Republicans extended beyond men with white skin.
Most intersting is the discussion of the very real attempts to end slavery in Virginia after the rebellion. There is some real irony that Jefferson - the father of American democracy - was the one that killed any hope for the peaceful end of slavery. In the end, Egerton is correct that once Virginians decided to continue their peculiar institution, that opressive control of slaves rather than the principals that the revolution was fought over had to be the controlling philosophy.
This is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand how slavery fit within the context of American political thought.
Book Description
Lust for Liberty challenges long-standing views of popular medieval revolts. Comparing rebellions in northern and southern Europe over two centuries, Samuel Cohn analyzes their causes and forms, their leadership, the role of women, and the suppression or success of these revolts.
Popular revolts were remarkably common--not the last resort of desperate people. Leaders were largely workers, artisans, and peasants. Over 90 percent of the uprisings pitted ordinary people against the state and were fought over political rights--regarding citizenship, governmental offices, the barriers of ancient hierarchies--rather than rents, food prices, or working conditions. After the Black Death, the connection of the word "liberty" with revolts increased fivefold, and its meaning became more closely tied with notions of equality instead of privilege.
The book offers a new interpretation of the Black Death and the increase of and change in popular revolt from the mid-1350s to the early fifteenth century. Instead of structural explanations based on economic, demographic, and political models, this book turns to the actors themselves--peasants, artisans, and bourgeois--finding that the plagues wrought a new urgency for social and political change and a new self- and class-confidence in the efficacy of collective action.
Customer Reviews:
Pair of reviews for Puerto Rico's Revolt.......2006-07-12
"The text is permeated by a feeling of immediacy that allows one to appreciate the deeds of the flesh and blood individuals involved."
-El Mundo
"The book has the power to cause deep impact upon the reader . . .
fascinating reading that makes us witnesses of an episode in our history that was both great and tragic."
-Sunday Book Review,
El Nuevo Dia
Luis Negrón Hernández, editor de PReb.com comenta:.......2000-03-29
Es sin duda "El Grito de Lares" uno de los acontecimientos que más interés despierta entre los puertorriqueños. Y es ésta la obra a adquirir si usted es uno de ellos. La profesora Olga Jiménez de Wagenheim, basándose mayormente en los expedientes judiciales de los arrestados en la insurrección armada, nos presenta las "caras" de los que conspiraron y se levantaron contra el régimen español (el cura, el zapatero, el esclavo, el hacendado, el jornalero...) en busca de una patria libre para todos los boricuas, sin importar su raza o condición social.
Average customer rating:
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The Revolt of the Catalans (Cambridge Paperback Library)
J. H. Elliott
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521278902 |
Book Description
The revolution of Catalonia in 1640 was a signal event in seventeenth-century Europe. Its causes and antecedents - essential for an understanding of the revolution itelf - form the basis of Professor Elliott’s study of the Spanish monarchy at this time. They throw remarkable light on the whole question of the decline of Spain in the seventeenth century from its position of pre-eminence in Europe. From the fierce suppression of Catalan bandits by their Castilian overlords during the second decade of the century, Professor Elliott traces the gradual deterioration of relations between the principality of Catalonia and the government in Madrid. He shows how Olivares, the favourite and chief minister of Philip IV, attempted to use Catalan resources to fight Spain’s foreign wars, and how the growing tension led ultimately to a revolution, which he suggests played a crucial part in Spain’s decline. Professor Elliott’s story is almost entirely based on previously unknown documents found in the Spanish national and local archives. These sources enabled him to write the first full-scale treatment of Olivares and his policies. While exciting as a story in its own right, it also stands as a case-history of the perennial struggle between regional liberties and the claims of central governments.
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The Revolt of Naples
Rosario Villari
Manufacturer: Polity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0745607241 |
Book Description
The publication in English of this classic work will be welcomed by students and researchers in early modern European history, culture and politics. The Revolt of Naples examines one of the major events in the years of `revolution' in Europe in the 1640s: the revolt by the people of the Kingdom of Naples against the Spanish monarchy which ruled over them. Villari analyses the preconditions of the revolt, going back to its roots in the late 16th Century and discussing economic, social and political developments in the Kingdom.
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