9 Historic Revolutions: A Study in Political and Economic Evolution

By Howard Sherman

In concrete terms, the author has been facinated by the many powerful revoutions that have occured during his own lifetime. It is a mystery to many writers exactly how history evolves through different stages of society. REVOLUTION answers this question by looking at the excitng events and different group relationshships that have powered each revolution. 

The revolutions revealed in this book include the Neolithic revolution of prehistoric times, the crises and the end of the Roman empire, the rise of feudilsm and serfdom in England and the path was followed to end feudlaism in England forever. The book shows how France went through a bloody revolution against the feudal Lords which resulted in the beginnings of democracy and capitalism throughout Europe. 

The complex and difficult revolution against Brittish emperialism iun India is revealed and stand as a sign as an example of many anti colonial revolutions that later occured throughout the world. The revolutionary path then goes through China and Russia.

Finally, the patterns of these revolutions in their orgins activity and final explosive activity are examined to see how they all behaved in certain similiar manners- even though the conditions were entirely different in each era. The last chapter in the book present social movements and conflicts as a concluding historical event.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781785275388

Book preview

9 HISTORIC REVOLUTIONS

9 HISTORIC REVOLUTIONS

A Study in Political and Economic Evolution

HOWARD J. SHERMAN

Anthem Press

An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company

www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2021

by ANTHEM PRESS

75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK

or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK

and

244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

Copyright Howard J. Sherman © 2021

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020949921

Cover images: Anti-clockwise from the bottom—Statue of Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of India, reddees / Shutterstock.com; Tribe of hunter-gatherers, Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com; Two African American soldiers wearing Union uniforms, Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com; The American Revolution, Yankee Doodle 1776, three patriots, by Archibald M. Willard, ca 1876, Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com; Detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, jorisvo / Shutterstock.com; Caesar on horseback, Voropaev Vasiliy / Shutterstock.com; A stamp printed in France commemorates the opening of the Estates General, May 5, 1789, Olga Popova / Shutterstock.com; Poster on the culture revolution of China in 1970s, John Lock /Shutterstock.com; Soviet communistic background, Triff / Shutterstock.com.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-536-4 (Pbk)

ISBN-10: 1-78527-536-4 (Pbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

1 Class Conflict and the Path to Revolution

2 Prehistoric Communal Clans (Middle East)

3 Revolution from Communal Equality to Slavery (Middle East)

4 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Revolution from Slavery to Feudalism

5 The English Revolution (1640–60): From Feudalism to Capitalism

6 The American Revolution (1776): From Colony to Capitalism

7 French Revolution (1789): From Feudalism to Capitalism

8 American Civil War (1861): Revolution from Slavery to Capitalism

9 Anti-colonial Revolutions for Independence Such as India

10The Russian Revolution

11The Chinese Revolution

12Patterns of Revolution

13The Progressive Theory of Revolution

14The Present as History

Bibliography

Index

FOREWORD

The daily lives that we human beings experience—all of us, in all generations throughout history—consist of a large number of activities that, among other things, enable us to keep food on our tables and roofs over our heads. These acts of provisioning—how we organize our lives to keep ourselves and our families alive—can easily come to seem immutable, as patterns that never change over the course of lifetimes or even generations.

In reality, however, all of our life patterns are grounded within the framework of a prevailing social order that defines a historical epoch. We may not think much about, or even notice, the specific features of these prevailing social orders as we go about our daily lives. But they are nevertheless always present. This is what Karl Marx was referring to in the justly famous epigram he wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon: Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, and given and transmitted from the past. The history of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the living.

This book by Howard Sherman that you are holding in your hands brings alive the processes through which various social orders have arisen in history, how they became consolidated over periods of centuries, but then also how they slowly began to deteriorate, eventually to collapse and disappear into the dustbin of history.

The historical sweep of 9 Historic Revolutions is breathtaking. It includes 10 chapters that describe huge transformations that have taken place over time within social orders that were once dominant in a given time and place. Each of these transformations began with long-term evolutionary transitions that then led to relatively brief but intense moments of revolutionary upheaval.

In the book’s first historical chapter, Sherman describes what he terms prehistoric communal clans. These are the earliest form of social organization, consisting of extended families that formed into mutually supportive and relatively egalitarian social organizations. Archaeological evidence from the Middle East dates this form of social organization back roughly 100,000 years.

From this starting point, Sherman explains how prehistorical communal clans were gradually supplanted by slave societies in the Middle East. He then moves forward in time to describe the rise and fall of the Roman Empire as a slave society, and more broadly, the transition from slavery to feudalism in antiquity. From there, he discusses the English Revolution of 1640–60, the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1789, the American Civil War of 1861, the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution of 1948, and the large number of anticolonial uprisings, including in India, Africa, and Latin America. Most of these anticolonial struggles lasted for decades and even centuries until they broke through to achieve independence by the middle of the twentieth century.

Sherman infuses these historical chapters with vivid observations that build from bodies of evidence gathered by thousands of researchers. He manages to synthesize this vast and disparate literature into a clear narrative. This alone makes 9 Historic Revolutions a valuable contribution. But the book’s accomplishments do not stop here. This is because Sherman also advances a unified theoretical framework for understanding how the social orders that he describes have risen and fallen over time. He first states his approach clearly in Chapter 1 when he writes, One common pattern in all of the revolutions is a dramatic increase in the amount of class conflict. He then reiterates this overarching point toward the end of the book, in Chapter 13, which he titles The Progressive Theory of Revolution. He writes:

Since the end of the prehistoric era, every event in human evolution and revolution has always involved conflict among different classes. For example, in Rome there were slaves and masters; feudal England had lords and serfs; and today we have billionaire capitalists and ordinary workers. Each of these serious class conflicts was over the distribution of wealth and resources. (p. 233)

Between Chapters 1 and 13, Sherman works through the specifics as to how class conflicts play themselves out in the various historical epochs. In all cases, he shows how exploited classes have risen up against their oppressors, after having appeared to accept their conditions of life as inevitable.

Of course, Sherman’s analytic framework builds directly from Marx and Frederick Engels, who wrote, in the first sentence of chapter 1 of the Communist Manifesto that the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle. But, like Marx and Engels themselves, Sherman’s approach does not focus only on class conflict. He rather develops a framework that shows how class conflict interacts with the development of technologies, the formation of economic and social institutions, and the establishment of ideologies. In the relatively early phases of a social order’s existence, while it is still in ascendance, technologies, social and economic institutions, and ideologies all act as cornerstones serving to reinforce the power of the society’s ruling classes. But Sherman also shows how the emergence of new productive technologies can, with time, also serve to undermine an existing social order, and how economic and social institutions as well as ideologies can undergo change through dynamic interactions with the forces of class conflict.

Thus, in his chapter on the Roman Empire (Chapter 4), Sherman writes:

The great wealth of Rome was all built by the effort of slaves. The situation was very pleasant from the masters’ viewpoint, though it was awful from the slaves’ viewpoint (p. 64).

Living one’s life as a slave under Roman rule, it would have been nearly impossible to envision that this mighty empire would decline and fall. But it did indeed fall. A major reason for the collapse of Rome was that the slave system held back technological progress. The slaves resisted the introduction of new technologies, in agriculture for example, because they themselves gained no benefit from accepting new production methods. In particular, the slaves would see no reduction in the length of their working days or the intensity with which they labored. All benefits flowed to their masters.

The oppression experienced by slaves also meant that large numbers of supervisors were required to prevent the slaves from organizing rebellions. But the rebellions occurred anyway. The most famous was that led by the gladiator Spartacus. The slaves defeated three Roman armies before the uprising was finally defeated. Over time, this intense level of resistance to slavery forced plantation owners under the Roman Empire to grant slaves some degree of freedom. This is how the system that came to be known as serfdom emerged, supplanting outright slavery

From this one case study of the rise and fall of Rome, we can see how Sherman explains the dynamic interactions between the forces of technological change, economic and social institutions, and ideology, all operating within the framework of class struggle between slaves and Rome’s ruling elite.

But of course, the institution of slavery did not die with the fall of Rome. It rather reemerged, most vehemently, among other places, in the US South, beginning as early as the 1530s and continuing to operate as a predominant social order for over the subsequent 400 years. Sherman describes both the commonalities and differences between the Roman and US Southern slave systems. The most important commonality is obvious: both societies functioned on the basis of brutalizing human beings for hundreds of years. The biggest difference is that the US slave system operated alongside a burgeoning capitalist economy in the US North. As such, the fall of slavery in the US South was linked with the growing force of capitalism as a social order, in the United States and globally.

During the nineteenth century especially, the Industrial Revolution emerged within the interstices of capitalism, in the US North and in parts of Western Europe. This produced dramatic gains in industrial productivity. At the same time, the Southern slave economy, thoroughly tied, as it was, to agricultural practices that maximized the exploitation of slaves, included no incentives to advance technological progress. As such, the US South was consigned to economic backwardness, as capitalism became the predominant social order elsewhere.

The rise of capitalism, of course, introduced new forms of class conflict, in particular between the capitalist owners of society’s means of production—its industrial buildings, offices, machines, and transportation systems—and the workers who had to sell their labor to capitalists in order to sustain themselves and their families. These conflicts generated new forms of resistance that eventually led to revolutionary movements to advance socialist societies. The fundamental aim of socialist movements throughout the world was to overcome the exploitation of workers under capitalism.

Sherman focuses on the two most consequential revolutionary movements for socialism over the past 100 years, those that ended with the establishment of self-described Communist governments in Russia in 1917 and in China in 1948. Sherman summarizes the experience in Russia as follows:

The Russian Revolution of 1917 showed how an entire population of industrial workers, professionals, and farmers can overthrow a dictatorial government. The new government then attempted to create a new social-political economic system devoted to economic growth, where the product was divided among millions of ordinary people. Under that system, the Soviet Union experienced some of the fastest economic growth in history during the 1930s. Unfortunately, the government of the Soviet Union, led by a tiny group of party leaders, tried to, control every detail of Soviet investment and innovation. As a result, economic growth under this rigid dictatorship became slower and slower every year. This lack of economic growth eventually produced a counter-revolution in 1990 led by a narrow elite of criminal capitalists. (pp. 193–94)

Sherman is therefore clear that struggles to create social orders capable of eliminating, or at least minimizing, fundamental class conflicts remains a long-term work in progress. But Sherman is also not satisfied to end his story on this point. Rather, he concludes each of the book’s historical chapters with observations as to how the experiences during each historical epoch offer insights for understanding social conflicts and the prospects for positive social change today.

Sherman then also includes a summary of these lessons for the present in the book’s concluding Chapter 14, which he titles How to Apply the Progressive Historical Theory to the Present. The real conclusion to Sherman’s grand historical drama is therefore to define prospects for a progressive social change in the future. He writes:

Having seen what occurred in all the major revolutions, it is easier to understand the present situation developing in America and the rest of the world. Because of the long fight in America for better conditions by millions of people, new possibilities exist in America today. America is only one example, since the same approach could be used to understand all major societies. In America today, there is a real possibility that a major change in some aspects of society could occur through a peaceful political revolution.

I hope I have made clear that there is a wealth of material for readers to think about and absorb in 9 Historic Revolutions. This is true because, in this relatively slender book, Sherman succeeds both in clarifying the interactions between class conflict and social transformation over the millennia of human history and in providing valuable pathways for building just societies in the future.

Robert Pollin

Distinguished University Professor of Economics and

Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute (PERI)

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

After an initial draft of the book was written, it was edited inch by inch with the enormous help of Harvey Sherman, my nephew, who polished and improved almost every sentence. At various points some chapters were carefully edited by Lisa Sherman, my daughter.

I wish to also thank John Bellamy Foster for some extremely useful and constructive criticism of the early chapters. Paul Sherman, my son, worked directly with me to improve the content, style, and consistency in many areas of this book. Additional important contributions were made by Robert Brenner, James Devine, William Dugger, Ken Korman, Edith Lewis, Kit MacNee, Dawn Racquel Miller, and Robert Pollin.

This book began as an attempt to do a second edition of my earlier book, How Society Makes Itself (2005); I own the publishing rights to that book and utilized relevant sections as the basis for some chapters. This book was influenced by all the major events through the end of 2019 and includes some of the dramatic events of the first half of 2020.

For simplicity, this book will use the word America (with apologies to Latin Americans and Canadians) to stand for the United States of America.

The present book was not intended to be a carrier of enormous amounts of new data nor was it intended to cover all of the academic controversy in this area. Therefore, it does not have twenty-five pages of citations nor does it have seven hundred pages of text. The book attempts to provide a clear and simple explanation that can be read by any person seeking an introductory knowledge of the subject.

Chapter 1

CLASS CONFLICT AND THE PATH TO REVOLUTION

Many great writers contend that history is the foundation on which the present is built. History consists of lengthy periods of slow change and evolution as well as brief periods of explosive revolutionary change. Each country has distinct economic conditions, thus each revolution leads to a particular new set of economic interactions. The approach to history used in this book - helps the reader understand how and why the path of history shifted in each of these nine revolutions.

The Progressive Approach to History

There have been many vehement arguments over how to view the history of revolutions, with powerful writers taking a stand on -various sides of each issue. Progressive historians argue that the conservative view cannot explain historical evolution because conservatives ignore the conflicts among different interest groups. But many conservatives deny the existence of any social evolution. In terms of the economy or government, progressive historians begin by asking, What are the interests of the working class in any society versus the interests of the elite? This type of question will be found in every chapter after the prehistoric era.

Questions on the General Theory of Revolutionary Change

The view of political-economic evolution presented in this book has some similarities with evolution in many other sciences. In the nineteenth century, Darwin discovered there is a clear and fully explicable evolutionary process for animals and plants. Similarly, geologists have shown that the evolution of the Earth, including volcanoes and earthquakes, can be understood as a process beginning with the birth of the Earth itself.

During the nineteenth century, progressive social scientists began to explain in a clear and scientific manner all that has happened in social evolution throughout the time of Homo sapiens for the last hundred thousand years or more.

Evolution is a change that occurs over a long period in both society and in nature. This book focuses on social-political and economic revolutions. These revolutions, however, are all part of the general process of society’s evolution. Each revolution has changed the path of history and the existing systems.

Questions on Specific Revolutions

The following chapters will describe nine separate revolutions. The last section of the book will explain the approach used to understand these revolutions.

The prehistoric society tells us a great deal about the base point where the evolution of humanity began and how its first great revolution occurred. The Neolithic Revolution of around 5,000 years ago changed prehistoric society from nomadic groups of hunters and gatherers to an agricultural society, including herding of animals, in agricultural groups settled in permanent communities. New stone tools led to higher productivity. How did the use of new stone tools affect the structure of economic classes? As productivity grew, the new chiefs of these communities found that they could enslave workers to produce more in a day than their own subsistence. How did the owning of slaves change society? The reader will discover in Chapter 3 that the development of slavery eventually led to huge empires based on slavery.

The next revolution considered in this book is the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. This revolutionary change resulted in the evolution from classical slavery to feudal serfdom in the Roman Empire and most of the states that were influenced by Rome in Europe. Why did that empire decline and fall? What was the role of slavery in that process? What caused huge transformations in the Roman economy, ideology, technology, and politics? Chapter 4 explains how the existence of large-scale slavery had an influence on the rest of society.

The English Revolution of 1640–48 began with lords and knights in charge of large castles subordinate to kings and queens while serfs did all the economic production. In what ways did the revolution in England create the foundations for British capitalism? How did this transformation affect the British economy, ideology, technology, and politics? How did the British come to think of capitalism as the basic foundation of their society? Chapter 5 reveals how the struggle between the peasants and landlords lies beneath many of the glorious sounding proclamations about religion in the 1600s that convinced people to fight wars.

British settlers in North America produced a society of mostly free farmers under British colonial government. The conflicts in this society produced a revolution in 1776. Why did the struggles leading to the American Revolution change the colonist’s view of themselves as loyal followers of the British king to citizens of an independent country? How did the apparently weak forces of the settlers resist and eventually triumph over the most powerful army and navy in the world? How did the thirteen independent colonies manage to create a single democratic country? Chapter 6 will explain how each of these issues resulted in major changes in the distribution of wealth and power.

The French Revolution occurred in 1789, making use of some of the momentum and ideas coming from the American Revolution, while also attempting to make a more drastic change by ending all remnants of feudalism in France. How was the ruling class of French lords and great landowners overthrown? What caused the startling changes in the French ideology of proper social institutions? How did the French Revolution impact the rest of the world? In Chapter 7 it becomes apparent that behind the high-sounding phrases about liberty and nation, the actual conflict in France was about who was to own and control the agricultural and industrial economy.

In 1861, the long series of fights between Southern slave owners and Northern economic interests produced crises that led to war. During the American Civil War, hundreds of thousands of women and men died on both sides to reach a peace with an end to slavery and a unified American government. How did the new situation help the interests of the new free African Americans, American farmers, American workers, and Northern industrialists? Chapter 8 will explain the strengths and weaknesses of the different sides and why the North finally won the war.

Before the 1917 Revolution, the tsars owned and controlled a large amount of Russian agriculture, while the peasants labored to produce goods and services for their landlords. The oppression of the peasants and industrial workers was so bad that they eventually revolted against the tsar, landlords, and factory owners. How did this violent process advance in the vast lands of Russia? Chapter 10 answers the mysterious riddle as to why this revolution produced a government-run economy in Russia.

The great accomplishments and savage repression by the great emperors of China were only ended throughout the whole country by a revolution against the long domination of the feudal dynasty. How and why did the Chinese split into factions that supported either a continuation of capitalism or an advance to a socialist economy and government? By what road did China pass through eras of extreme warfare against domestic and foreign enemies of the revolution? Was the status of women improved by the Chinese Revolution? Chapter 11 explains why China had such sweeping changes and what the impact of these changes has been on the people of China.

For several centuries, India was ruled by the British, who extracted a huge amount of profits. That profit represented centuries of human suffering, especially by every serf and persons of low caste. Why did the British give land and power to the Muslims to create the country of Pakistan? Why did almost all colonies become independent during the last half of the twentieth century? Chapter 9 explains how recent revolutions changed the societies of most of the world from being colonies of European countries to being independent countries.

The book tells the remarkable story of these revolutions. After the story of the nine revolutions, Chapter 12 looks at how many of their patterns were similar. Chapter 13 explains how this new approach provides a framework with which one can examine and analyze any historical event. Finally, Chapter 14 describes how the use of the progressive historical approach helps to lay out a reasonable path for our future.

Chapter