Revolution and counter-revolution

Author: (English) Karl Fort
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This series is jointly launched by Jilin People's Publishing House and McGraw-Hill, a global giant in educational publishing. It aims to provide the simplest and most convenient way for the general public to quickly grasp the basic knowledge of Western social sciences, serving as a "reading primer" in the fields of philosophy and social sciences.
This series has been used as a basic textbook in universities in Europe and America for 20 years, written entirely by leading scholars from various fields in the West, and is continuously updated to keep pace with the times. It has become one of the most authoritative basic reading materials in social sciences recognized in the West, serving as a stepping stone for young scholars to enter the of social sciences. Some of its books, such as Liberalism and Postmodernism, have achieved astonishing sales and gained both the welcome of the Western intellectual community and the favor of the public.
We eagerly hope that this series can also win the acclaim it once received in Europe and America in China. Today, in the 21st century, the term "revolution" is used so widely that even a cleaning activity can be called revolutionary, making its original meaning blurred and irrelevant. However, in the need to systematically understand social sciences, it is still necessary to carefully analyze some commonly used social science terms. This is the course we must make up when studying social sciences. Like other social science terms, differences in knowledge backgrounds lead to vastly different interpretations. Regarding "revolution" and its companion term "counter-revolution," Western scholars and Marxist theory have disagreements in their definitions. Clearly, many of the author's ideas in this book draw from Marxist revolutionary theory, but there are significant errors in his understanding, which in turn lead to flaws in his other explanations of revolutionary theory. At the same time, the author holds some incorrect views and insights on certain revolutionary practices, especially the Chinese Revolution and the October Revolution in Russia, and some of his comments and descriptions are inappropriate. To respect the integrity of the work, we have made minimal edits and largely preserved its original form. We hope readers will keep a balanced perspective and adhere to critical reading. Of course, in terms of academic value, it is a rare Western revolutionary theory book that is not Trotskyist, with great reference and comparative value. It helps enrich our research on revolutionary theory, and from this perspective, the book's inspirational significance is immense. When approaching this book, we should adopt the same attitude toward Western studies as always—take the essence and discard the errors, read rationally, and make appropriate choices.