Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith

Rating:
Summary: The firey embers of the Revolutionary Faith still haunt us..
Review: Fire in the Minds of Men is an intriguing intellectual history that traces the developments of the so called revolutionary faith. The tumultuous upheavals and violent revolutions of the twentieth century were spawned by revolutionary ideologies fomented in the nineteenth century. These secular ideologies became full-fledged secular surrogates for religious belief and likewise sought the overthrow of traditional authority whether political or religious with the subsequent creation of a 'new order.' The contagious revolutionary fervor of the French Revolution, which was wrought from 1789 to 1791, had its origin in the utopian Rousseau and German Romanticism. Billington'a sweeping narrative begins amidst this fervor, which beset the eighteenth century.

Billington astutely observes that a flame of idealistic German Romanticism kindled the flames of the early revolutions. Groups like the Illuminati** (yes it did exist) led by the idealistic Adam Weishaupt clung to a Rousseauian vision of leading all humanity to moral perfection free from the trappings of all established political and religious authority. This group and other revolutionary secular sects sought to emulate the hierarchy and organization of the Jesuits. The Illuminati and its related groups were the revolutionaries who sought to bring about an end to the old order and liberate humanity into a blissful universal utopia of liberty, equality and fraternity. Billington interestingly devotes a full chapter on the occult organization of the early revolutionaries, which continued to inspire their latter day progeny. The new secular revolutionary of the time was enamored in occultic symbols, numerology, abstractions and rituals. Billington traces the developments of the revolutionary faith, which was consummated in the Revolution of 1789, throughout the nineteenth century.

Despite, various incarnations of revolutionary ideologies from anarchism to romantic utopian socialism to scientific socialism to syndicalism, a basic schism emerged in the revolutionary faith. Many of these ideologies didn't whither away, but rather metamorphisized and fused with one another. This schism played itself out in the ideological struggle between followers of Marx and Proudhon. Billington elaborates on this schism, and distinguishes between those who believed most in fraternity (and its idea that the nation was the vehicle of deliverance) and those who believed most in equality (and its idea that the social class was a vehicle of deliverance.) The chapter National vs. Social Revolution chronicles the revolutionary fracture that came about in the mid-1800's. What emerged from this schism were the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century. The heirs of the national revolutionary tradition, "fortified fraternity with equality" and gave birth to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. National revolutionaries of the twentieth century found their fraternity in the abstractions of Volk (People) or the (Reich) Nation. The social revolutionaries, on the other hand, lofted equality above all but bound it to fraternity. They gave rise to Bolshevism and Communist movements. Ironically, as Billington notes, "The most violent and authoritarian movements in Germany and Russia each intensified one form of the revolutionary faith by adopting signficant elements of the other." Nazism was abbreviation for "national socialism" while Communism under Stalin came to be defined as "socialism in one country." Both of these revolutionary faiths whether of the national revolutionary tradition or the social revolutionary tradition were millenarian social religions. Both revolutionary factions wanted a new order to supplant the old traditional order. Likewise, both factions offered a salvific promise of a glorious future for an enlightened humanity, which would be paid for in the cleansing blood of revolutionaries and dissidents alike.
Billington devotes a chapter to revolutionary syndicalism and its various subsects and the 'social nationalism' and the fascist mutation that emerged. Mussolini was the heir of French syndicalists like Sorel and Valois and revolutionary Italian nationalists like Mazzini. Mussolini polished his brand of corporatist-syndicalist ideology to turn syndicalism's theoretical rejection of the centralized state to a totally centralized state. However, he embraced its organization, which sought to link trade union organization (syndicates) with mass action aimed at created a new order. (Some scholars like Neev Sternhell have pointed that fascism represents a revision of Marxian socialism, rejecting its materialism and class struggle ethos in favor of an idealistic spiritual ideology (made manifest in the pagan state) while continually embracing an anti-liberal, anti-bourgeois, anti-parliamentary ideology like that of the Marxist. I recommend his books, which pick up where Billington left off in tracing the origins of fascism and national socialism.) Frther bridging the nineteenth and twentieth century, Billington offers a chapter on Lenin's Path to Power, which traces the revolutionary activities of he and his cohorts in bringing about the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In his introduction, Billington offers a optimistic view of the future and professes a solace and contentment since it seems that the moderation and temperance of clasical liberals like Lafayette seems to have won out over the extremists. After the French Revolution, even the revolutionaries grew tired and weary of the bloodshed and violence while ridding themselves of extremists like Robspierre, but will history repeat itself?
This is a compelling book and a must to understand the ideologies driving the totalitarianism and the blood soaked revolutions of the past century. I've hesistated to review this book until I read it thoroughly and reread to digest its major findings. It remains a invaluable work in understanding the totalitarian horrors, which plagued us during the twentieth century. The author James Billington boasts some pretty impressive credentials as a Librarian of Congress and international studies scholar. He demonstrates a remarkable expertise and interest in Russian history as well.

**(And yes, the Illuminati existed. No, contrary to the John Birch Society and pop culture conspiracy theories, it does not still exist. However, Billington leaves little doubt that it ignited a fire in the minds of men, which has undoubtedly influenced, changed and perhaps scarred our generation through the revolutionary fervor and wasteland created by the social upheveals and wars of the past blood-soaked century. The Illuminati waned while other revolutionary extremists rallied to pick up its torch. The indeliable mark Illuminatism has left on history and the present time leaves little wonder that the gullible who hear of its eighteenth-century exploits are so apt to still believe it still exists.)

Rating:
Summary: Salutari Illuminati
Review: Noone has mentioned the cousin to this book which is Carrol Quigly's "Tragedy and Hope". Dr Quigly went to Harvard and taught at Georgetown where he, according to Clinton in his inaugual address, became the mentor to future president Bill Clinton. Please read my review of Quigly's work where I reveal a third book that is just as essential as Billingtons and Quiglys...and that throws a curve even at the most well read and learned!

Rating:
Summary: Salutari Illuminati
Review: Noone has mentioned the cousin to this book which is Carrol Quigly's "Tragedy and Hope". Dr Quigly went to Harvard and taught at Georgetown where he, according to Clinton in his inaugual address, became the mentor to future president Bill Clinton. Please read my review of Quigly's work where I reveal a third book that is just as essential as Billingtons and Quiglys...and that throws a curve even at the most well read and learned!

Rating:
Summary: Salutari Illuminati
Review: Noone has mentioned the cousin to this book which is Carrol Quigly's "Tragedy and Hope". Dr Quigly went to Harvard and taught at Georgetown where he, according to Clinton in his inaugual address, became the mentor to future president Bill Clinton. Please read my review of Quigly's work where I reveal a third book that is just as essential as Billingtons and Quiglys...and that throws a curve even at the most well read and learned!

Rating:
Summary: the origins of the revolutionary faith
Review: The title of this book comes from a line from Dostoyevsky's most overtly political novel, "Demons." Admist the intrigue and chaos somebody had set the town on fire. The observation was made that the the "fire is in the minds of men" meaning that something spiritual had happened prior to the arson. Fire in the minds of men is an attempt to trace historically the ideas that inspired revoulutions and revolutionaries. From the French Revolution's humble beginings in the cafes of the Palais Royale, to the origins of the word "communism," to the romantics, and the split between national and social revolutionaries, Fire in the Minds of Men is filled with insight and information necessary to understand what is going on today behind the headlines.

Rating:
Summary: the origins of the revolutionary faith
Review: The title of this book comes from a line from Dostoyevsky's most overtly political novel, "Demons." Admist the intrigue and chaos somebody had set the town on fire. The observation was made that the the "fire is in the minds of men" meaning that something spiritual had happened prior to the arson. Fire in the minds of men is an attempt to trace historically the ideas that inspired revoulutions and revolutionaries. From the French Revolution's humble beginings in the cafes of the Palais Royale, to the origins of the word "communism," to the romantics, and the split between national and social revolutionaries, Fire in the Minds of Men is filled with insight and information necessary to understand what is going on today behind the headlines.

Rating:
Summary: The firey embers of the Revolutionary Faith still haunt us..
Review: ~Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith~ is an intriguing intellectual history that traces the developments of the so called revolutionary faith. The tumultuous upheavals and violent revolutions of the twentieth century were spawned by revolutionary ideologies fomented in the nineteenth century. These secular ideologies became full-fledged secular surrogates for religious belief and likewise sought the overthrow of traditional authority whether political or religious with the subsequent creation of a new order. The contagious revolutionary fervor of the French Revolution, which was wrought from 1789 to 1791, had its origin in the utopian Rousseau and German Romanticism. Billington'a sweeping narrative begins amidst this fervor, which beset the eighteenth century.

Billington astutely observes that a flame of idealistic German Romanticism kindled the flames of the early revolutions. Groups like the Illuminati** (yes it did exist) led by the idealistic Adam Weishaupt clung to a Rousseauian vision of leading all humanity to moral perfection free from the trappings of all established political and religious authority. This group and other revolutionary secular sects sought to emulate the hierarchy and organization of the Jesuits. The Illuminati and its related groups were the revolutionaries who sought to bring about an end to the old order and liberate humanity into a blissful universal utopia of liberty, equality and fraternity. Billington interestingly devotes a full chapter on the occult organization of the early revolutionaries, which continued to inspire their latter day progeny. The new secular revolutionary of the time was enamored in occultic symbols, numerology, abstractions and rituals. Billington traces the developments of the revolutionary faith, which was consummated in the Revolution of 1789, throughout the nineteenth century.

Despite, various incarnations of revolutionary ideologies from anarchism to romantic utopian socialism to scientific socialism to syndicalism, a basic schism emerged in the revolutionary faith. Many of these ideologies didn't whither away, but rather metamorphisized and fused with one another. This schism played itself out in the ideological struggle between followers of Marx and Proudhon. Billington elaborates on this schism, and distinguishes between those who believed most in fraternity (and its idea that the nation was the vehicle of deliverance) and those who believed most in equality (and its idea that the social class was a vehicle of deliverance.) The chapter National vs. Social Revolution chronicles the revolutionary fracture that came about in the mid-1800's. What emerged from this schism were the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century. The heirs of the national revolutionary tradition, "fortified fraternity with equality" and gave birth to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. National revolutionaries of the twentieth century found their fraternity in the abstractions of Volk (People) or the (Reich) Nation. The social revolutionaries, on the other hand, lofted equality above all but bound it to fraternity. They gave rise to Bolshevism and Communist movements. Ironically, as Billington notes, "The most violent and authoritarian movements in Germany and Russia each intensified one form of the revolutionary faith by adopting signficant elements of the other." Nazism was abbreviation for "national socialism" while Communism under Stalin came to be defined as "socialism in one country." Both of these revolutionary faiths whether of the national revolutionary tradition or the social revolutionary tradition were millenarian social religions. Both revolutionary factions wanted a new order to supplant the old traditional order. Likewise, both factions offered a salvific promise of a glorious future for an enlightened humanity, which would be paid for in the cleansing blood of revolutionaries and dissidents alike.

Billington devotes a chapter to revolutionary syndicalism and its various subsects and the 'social nationalism' and the fascist mutation that emerged. Mussolini was the heir of French syndicalists like Sorel and Valois and revolutionary Italian nationalists like Mazzini. Mussolini polished his brand of corporatist-syndicalist ideology turning syndicalism's rejection of state authority on its nose, but he embraced its organization, which sought to link trade union organization (syndicates) with mass action aimed at created a new order. Some scholars like Neev Sternhell have pointed that fascism represents a revision of Marxian socialism, rejecting its materialism and class struggle ethos in favor of an idealistic spiritual ideology made manifest in the pagan state while continually embracing an anti-liberal, anti-bourgeois, anti-parliamentary ideology like that of the Marxist.) Further bridging the nineteenth and twentieth century, Billington offers a chapter on 'Lenin's Path to Power,' which traces the revolutionary activities of he and his cohorts in bringing about the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In his introduction, Billington offers a optimistic view of the future and professes a solace and contentment since it seems that the moderation and temperance of clasical liberals like Lafayette seems to have won out over the extremists. After the French Revolution, even the revolutionaries grew tired and weary of the bloodshed and violence while ridding themselves of extremists like Robspierre, but will history repeat itself?

This is a compelling book and a must to understand the ideologies driving the totalitarianism and the blood soaked revolutions of the past century. I've hesistated to review this book until I read it thoroughly and reread to digest its major findings. It remains a invaluable work in understanding the totalitarian horrors, which plagued us during the twentieth century. The author James Billington boasts some pretty impressive credentials as a Librarian of Congress and international studies scholar. He demonstrates a remarkable expertise and interest in Russian history as well.

**(And yes, the Illuminati existed. No, contrary to pop culture conspiracy theories, it does not still exist. However, Billington leaves little doubt that it ignited a fire in the minds of men, which has undoubtedly influenced, changed and perhaps scarred our generation through the revolutionary fervor and the wasteland created by the social upheveals and wars of the past blood-soaked century. The Illuminati waned while other revolutionary extremists rallied to pick up its torch. The indeliable mark Illuminatism has left on history and the present time leaves little wonder that the gullible who hear of its eighteenth-century exploits are so apt to still believe it still exists.)