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Russian and International Studies
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INTL 364/RUSS 364 Fall 2008 Instructor: Jim von Geldern Time: TTh 9:40-11:10
email: vongeldern@macalester.edu Daniel Patrick Moynihan: The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself. Course DescriptionThis course examines the relationship between cultural and political change in four very different revolutions: France of 1789, Russia 1917, the Islamic Revolution in Iran 1979; and the peaceful transfer of power in South Africa in 1994. Each of the revolutions was inspired by ambitious cultural as well as political agendas. The dynamics of history and personality constantly shifted the course of the revolutions, often to the point that they were unrecognizable to the their founders. In our seminar, we will be asking questions such as: How are the cultural and political related? How do people change when governments are overturned? How do revolutions shape the consciousness of their citizens? Do people understand events as revolutionaries intend them to? To answer these questions, we will examine symbols and political ideologies, mass media outreach, education and enlistment, changing social identities, the culture of violence, popular participation and resistance, as well as other issues. Readings will include ideas that inspired the revolutions, e.g. Voltaire and Rousseau, Marx and Lenin, Khomeini and the Koran. We will read contemporary accounts, both sympathetic and antagonistic, and look at popular culture to see how events were understood. Fashion and etiquette, comics and caricatures, movies and plays are among the materials used. Finally, we will examine how and if revolution changes the lives of average citizens.
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