Impossible Revolution

Impossible Revolution
Author: Yassin al-Haj Saleh
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2017-08-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1608468755

Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad and his junta regime have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Syrians in the name of fighting terrorism. Former political prisoner, and current refugee, Yassin al-Haj Saleh exposes the lies that enable Assad to continue on his reign of terror as well as the complicity of both Russia and the US in atrocities endured by Syrians.

The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran

The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran
Author: Charles Kurzman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2005-09-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780674039834

The shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, would remain on the throne for the foreseeable future: This was the firm conclusion of a top-secret CIA analysis issued in October 1978. One hundred days later the shah--despite his massive military, fearsome security police, and superpower support was overthrown by a popular and largely peaceful revolution. But the CIA was not alone in its myopia, as Charles Kurzman reveals in this penetrating work; Iranians themselves, except for a tiny minority, considered a revolution inconceivable until it actually occurred. Revisiting the circumstances surrounding the fall of the shah, Kurzman offers rare insight into the nature and evolution of the Iranian revolution and into the ultimate unpredictability of protest movements in general. As one Iranian recalls, The future was up in the air. Through interviews and eyewitness accounts, declassified security documents and underground pamphlets, Kurzman documents the overwhelming sense of confusion that gripped pre-revolutionary Iran, and that characterizes major protest movements. His book provides a striking picture of the chaotic conditions under which Iranians acted, participating in protest only when they expected others to do so too, the process approaching critical mass in unforeseen and unforeseeable ways. Only when large numbers of Iranians began to think the unthinkable, in the words of the U.S. ambassador, did revolutionary expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A corrective to 20-20 hindsight, this book reveals shortcomings of analyses that make the Iranian revolution or any major protest movement seem inevitable in retrospect.

Impossible Individuality

Impossible Individuality
Author: Gerald N. Izenberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 1992-06-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1400820669

Studying major writers and philosophers--Schlegel and Schleiermacher in Germany, Wordsworth in England, and Chateaubriand in France--Gerald Izenberg shows how a combination of political, social, and psychological developments resulted in the modern concept of selfhood. More than a study of one national culture influencing another, this work goes to the heart of kindred intellectual processes in three European countries. Izenberg makes two persuasive and related arguments. The first is that the Romantics developed a new idea of the self as characterized by fundamentally opposing impulses: a drive to assert the authority of the self and expand that authority to absorb the universe, and the contradictory impulse to surrender to a greater idealized entity as the condition of the self's infinity. The second argument seeks to explain these paradoxes historically, showing how romantic individuality emerged as a compromise. Izenberg demonstrates how the Romantics retreated, in part, from a preliminary, radically activist ideal of autonomy they had worked out under the impact of the French Revolution. They had begun by seeing the individual self as the sole source of meaning and authority, but the convergence of crises in their personal lives with the crises of the revolution revealed this ideal as dangerously aggressive and self-aggrandizing. In reaction, the Romantics shifted their absolute claims for the self to the realm of creativity and imagination, and made such claims less dangerous by attributing totality to nature, art, lover, or state, which in return gave that totality back to the self.

Accomplishing the Impossible

Accomplishing the Impossible
Author: William E. Rapp
Publisher: Knox Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1642938734

Accomplishing the Impossible draws contemporary leadership lessons from the events and people that were central to the beginning of the American Revolution. Retired general, scholar, and educator William E. Rapp, cuts through the popular mythology around the Boston Campaign and applies the historical lessons to challenges faced by today’s business and public sector leaders. By doing so, he inspires today’s leaders to view contemporary leadership and change management through a fresh lens. “At a time when our nation is emerging from multiple crises, one often hears cries for better leadership. But what virtues must our leaders possess and how do we develop those qualities in ourselves and others? Major General Bill Rapp (ret.) tells us in Accomplishing the Impossible: Leadership That Launched Revolutionary Change. In this well-researched and elegantly written book about the unsung heroes who helped win our nation’s independence, an accomplished warrior-scholar tells compelling stories that teach us not only how to spot and grow effective and principled leaders, but also how to become better leaders ourselves.” —H.R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World “An outstanding primer on leadership all the more exceptional for breathing life into events that occurred nearly 250 years ago. Bill Rapp teases out lessons in leadership that are as germane to business as they are to the military and are as applicable today as they were in the first years of the American Revolution. A unique resource for leaders looking to maximize the potential of their organizations.” —Peter R. Mansoor, Mason Chair of Military History, Ohio State University, Author, Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War

You Say You Want a Revolution?

You Say You Want a Revolution?
Author: Daniel Chirot
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2022-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691234329

Why most modern revolutions have ended in bloodshed and failure--and what lessons they hold for today's world of growing extremism. Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? And what lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a world where political extremism is on the rise and rational reform based on moderation and compromise often seems impossible to achieve? In YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?, Daniel Chirot examines a wide range of right- and left-wing revolutions around the world--from the late eighteenth century to today--to provide important new answers to these critical questions. A powerful account of the unintended consequences of revolutionary change, YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? is filled with critically important lessons for today's liberal democracies struggling with new forms of extremism."--Back cover

The Swachh Bharat Revolution

The Swachh Bharat Revolution
Author: Parameswaran Iyer
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2019-09-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9353572681

On 15 August 2014, in his maiden Independence Day address to the country, Narendra Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to take on the national shame of open defecation. Launched a few weeks later, on Gandhi Jayanti, the Swachh Bharat Mission has come a long way over the past five years. India is now close to declaring itself an Open Defecation Free nation on 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation. The Swachh Bharat Revolution looks at all that went into making this remarkable transformation happen, and how a nation of over a billion people led the largest people's movement in the world to make the impossible possible. This is a compendium of essays -- with names such as Arun Jaitley, Amitabh Kant, Ratan Tata, Sadhguru, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Tavleen Singh, Bill Gates and many more, along with a message from Prime Minister Modi himself -- that celebrates a historic national achievement.

Want to Start a Revolution?

Want to Start a Revolution?
Author: Dayo F. Gore
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2009-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0814783147

The story of the black freedom struggle in America has been overwhelmingly male-centric, starring leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Huey Newton. With few exceptions, black women have been perceived as supporting actresses; as behind-the-scenes or peripheral activists, or rank and file party members. But what about Vicki Garvin, a Brooklyn-born activist who became a leader of the National Negro Labor Council and guide to Malcolm X on his travels through Africa? What about Shirley Chisholm, the first black Congresswoman? From Rosa Parks and Esther Cooper Jackson, to Shirley Graham DuBois and Assata Shakur, a host of women demonstrated a lifelong commitment to radical change, embracing multiple roles to sustain the movement, founding numerous groups and mentoring younger activists. Helping to create the groundwork and continuity for the movement by operating as local organizers, international mobilizers, and charismatic leaders, the stories of the women profiled in Want to Start a Revolution? help shatter the pervasive and imbalanced image of women on the sidelines of the black freedom struggle. Contributors: Margo Natalie Crawford, Prudence Cumberbatch, Johanna Fernández, Diane C. Fujino, Dayo F. Gore, Joshua Guild, Gerald Horne, Ericka Huggins, Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Joy James, Erik McDuffie, Premilla Nadasen, Sherie M. Randolph, James Smethurst, Margaret Stevens, and Jeanne Theoharis.

Demanding the Impossible

Demanding the Impossible
Author: Slavoj Zizek
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2013-10-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0745672280

"Based on live interviews, this book captures 'Zi'zek at his best, elucidating such topics as the uprisings of the Arab Spring, the global financial crisis, populism in Latin America, the rise of China, and even the riddle of North Korea. While analyzing our present predicaments, 'Zi'zek also explores possibilities for change. A key obligation in our troubled times, 'Zi'zek argues, is to dare to ask fundamental questions: we must reflect and theorize anew, and always be prepared to rethink and redefine the limits of the possible."--

The Impossible State

The Impossible State
Author: Wael B. Hallaq
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2012-11-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231530862

Wael B. Hallaq boldly argues that the "Islamic state," judged by any standard definition of what the modern state represents, is both impossible and inherently self-contradictory. Comparing the legal, political, moral, and constitutional histories of premodern Islam and Euro-America, he finds the adoption and practice of the modern state to be highly problematic for modern Muslims. He also critiques more expansively modernity's moral predicament, which renders impossible any project resting solely on ethical foundations. The modern state not only suffers from serious legal, political, and constitutional issues, Hallaq argues, but also, by its very nature, fashions a subject inconsistent with what it means to be, or to live as, a Muslim. By Islamic standards, the state's technologies of the self are severely lacking in moral substance, and today's Islamic state, as Hallaq shows, has done little to advance an acceptable form of genuine Shari'a governance. The Islamists' constitutional battles in Egypt and Pakistan, the Islamic legal and political failures of the Iranian Revolution, and similar disappointments underscore this fact. Nevertheless, the state remains the favored template of the Islamists and the ulama (Muslim clergymen). Providing Muslims with a path toward realizing the good life, Hallaq turns to the rich moral resources of Islamic history. Along the way, he proves political and other "crises of Islam" are not unique to the Islamic world nor to the Muslim religion. These crises are integral to the modern condition of both East and West, and by acknowledging these parallels, Muslims can engage more productively with their Western counterparts.