Mirrors of Revolution

Book excerpt: From the English Civil War to the Fronde, from Masaniello to Robespierre, this book is one of the first attempts to create a European, transnational approach to the problems of the early modern age. It proposes a detailed reconstruction of the main interpretative tendencies that have developed around the English Civil War, the French Revolution, the so-called 'Seventeenth-Century Crisis': the Fronde and the Neapolitan revolt of Masaniello. And yet, Mirrors of Revolution agrees with neither the traditional social interpretations of the causes of revolt, nor with revisionist approaches that privilege the influence of discursive registers. Instead, it proposes an original interpretation of revolution based on the concept of political identity. In the terms of this analysis, revolutions do not reveal previously hidden social groups. Rather, revolutions become the central ground upon which new identities coalesce. With its usage of the Fronde and Masaniello as case-studies for extensive investigation, Mirrors of Revolution outlines a challenging and exciting reformulation of the concept, and causes, of revolution.