POL 272 - Social Revolutions

(SOC 272) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014

Prerequisite: ANTH 101, SOC 102, or instructor consent. This seminar provides an in-depth exploration of a variety of social revolutions. The overarching goal of the course is to discern whether or not a single “theory of revolutions” can be constructed. Are there common patterns to be observed in (and common causes behind) events as separated by time, place, and ideology as the 17th-century “Glorious Revolution” in England, the French Revolution, Latin American revolutions (including the Wars of Independence and the Mexican Revolution), the Russian Revolution, and more recent events such as the revolution that brought the current regime in Iran to power? To this end, students read and discuss a variety of such theories that have been put forward by sociologists, historians, and political scientists and then consider case studies of the aforementioned social revolutions in order to scrutinize these theories. Eastwood.