{"product_id":"2940012821270","title":"THE EVOLUTION OF REVOLUTION","description":"Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for enjoyable reading. (Worth every penny spent!)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excerpt from the INTRODUCTION:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCareful observers agree that with the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century the civilised world entered upon another revolutionary period. In this, as in other epochs of great social change, there is nothing really sudden about the development. Unnoted modifications in the economic order of things have been going on steadily all the time. But now these have become cumulative in their effect. The time is nearly ripe, therefore, for giving a political outlet and legal sanction to alterations in the industrial and social world— alterations which otherwise may compel men to accomplish ignorantly and in haste what ought to have been carried out intelligently and at leisure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA revolution is none the less a revolution because its aims have been achieved peacefully; nor does the bloodiest upheaval really anticipate or even greatly hasten the growth of events. In the latter case, incapacity above and justifiable impatience below seethe until an outburst takes place. But then the queer psychology of human nature has its word to say in the matter; and though the crucial and necessary reforms are made, the people concerned, being mentally unprepared, allow a counter-stroke of reaction to take place which hinders them from realising the full value of the new forms then indispensable to social progress. Yet all that the ablest and most far-seeing men can do is to take account, without prejudice, of the facts around them and to make ready, in concert with their fellows, whose minds have been likewise awakened, for the actual transformation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are thus two sides to every great change in the conduct of human affairs. First, and most important in all progressive societies, is the economic development itself, which, up to the present era, has been for the most part unconscious, so far as the mass of the people, and even the most capable brains of the time, were concerned. Next to the growth of the economic forms comes the mental appreciation of them, which enables  the community, led by its clearest thinkers, to comprehend what is taking place, they may thus capably and consciously guide their own community on to the next plane of social realisation, as gardeners may help on the growth of a plant, though they could not alone cause it to grow. Such psychologic influence, reacting consciously upon national growth, is practically unattainable until mankind has reached the point in civilisation whence it can survey the unconscious gropings of the past, and the more intelligent aspirations of the present, as one great inevitable series of advances in the course of human progress. The unconscious is thenceforward controlled, or at least intelligently supervised, by the conscious.\u003cbr\u003eRevolution, in its complete sense, means a thorough economic, social and political change in any great human community.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere can be no revolution, in this sense, until the economic and social conditions are ripe for such a change.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTherefore to speak of \"making\" a revolution is absurd. No man and no body of men can make a revolution; just as no man and no body of men can check a revolution, for any considerable time, when once the conditions of change are themselves prepared. This means, further, that the use of force, however justifiable, does not originate, and may not even hasten, revolution. Economic and social changes are not brought about in that way. Force may have helped revolution at exceptional periods; it has never created revolution at any period.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet, unless forms of government or means of expressing popular opinion have been so modified and adapted as to give a pacific and legal outlet to the general changes demanded by the economic and social situation, then forcible endeavours to establish the new system are inevitable. Nor can the most relentless application of force on the other side do more than postpone the advance. The part taken by force in revolution is, therefore, much less decisive than is commonly assumed.","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081759047920,"sku":"2940012821270","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012821270_p0.jpg?v=1763573025","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012821270","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}