How to Stage a Revolution

The central question

The course asks why people overthrow their rulers and what they put in their place. Rather than treating revolution as a single event, it compares major political transformations across countries and centuries to work out what the word means and how to judge its effects.

Violence, ideals and outcomes

A recurring thread is whether radical change requires bloodshed or terror, and how revolutionaries try to turn their ideals into working institutions. The course also looks at why some upheavals succeed while others fail, which makes it a study of consequences as much as causes.

Sources and method

The course works with a wide range of material, from revolutionary writings and constitutions to music, films, art, novels, memoirs and newspapers. That breadth lets it read political events alongside the cultural record they left behind.

• The causes and nature of revolutions across different periods.
• The relationship between violence and radical change.
• Why some revolutions succeed and others do not.