Crane Brinton's classic The Anatomy of Revolution was written in 1938 and another edition appeared in 1965. He covered the French, American, and Russian revolutions looking at the phases and outcomes (no surprise he found the American revolution superior). I am going to dig it out this week-end and take a look because I am curious how the events in Egypt do or do not follow the course Brinton traces. [MORE on Brinton in the comments.]In the meantime, Juan Cole has posted this analysis by Philip Cunningham, headlined "Every Uprising is Different." Are they?This analysis gets the dilemmas the protesters face: "Attempts are being made to reassure the protesters that Mubarak and his supporters would not take advantage of any de-mobilization of the protesters to go back on his word and stay on in power after September. The dilemma before the protesters is: The increasing hardships make it difficult to maintain for long the present state of high mobilization. At the same time, any premature demobilization before there are definitive and irreversible changes in the political status quo could defeat the purpose of the revolution." HT: Pat Lang

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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