Scan barcode
A review by moreteamorecats
How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? by Neil Davidson
4.0
Perhaps it's just my lifelong interest in Lincoln, but I find the US Civil War makes a useful index for the narratives and theories of lefty historians. Any adequate reading will need heaps of nuance and specificity; any compelling reading will still need a theory. Davidson's argument here meets both tests. He follows the mainstream accounts of [a: James McPherson|12144|James M. McPherson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1447275029p2/12144.jpg] and [a: David Blight|1903|David W. Blight|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] in depicting the genesis and function of US anti-blackness (correctly IMHO). His added Marxian insight is that neither the slave system nor industrial capitalism could have coexisted alongside the other-- an insight made all the more helpful by its resonance with Lincoln's own analysis.
To the main point: the Civil War is the last and pivotal example Davidson offers of "bourgeois revolutions," by which he means revolutions which establish capitalism in place of feudal or tributary economies. As such, the book also functions as a decent primer on some theories of revolution. It helps that Davidson writes eloquently and often with good humor to boot.
One caveat: As with most lefty history I've read recently (see my tag), there is a fair bit of sub rosa intra-left sniping here. As a Protestant theologian, I find the rhetoric of sectarian orthodoxy familiar if slightly maddening. Be ready to google shibboleths and to read the results critically if you do.
To the main point: the Civil War is the last and pivotal example Davidson offers of "bourgeois revolutions," by which he means revolutions which establish capitalism in place of feudal or tributary economies. As such, the book also functions as a decent primer on some theories of revolution. It helps that Davidson writes eloquently and often with good humor to boot.
One caveat: As with most lefty history I've read recently (see my tag), there is a fair bit of sub rosa intra-left sniping here. As a Protestant theologian, I find the rhetoric of sectarian orthodoxy familiar if slightly maddening. Be ready to google shibboleths and to read the results critically if you do.