The classic theory of revolution was formulated by Alexis de Tocqueville, who observed in The Ancien Régime and the Revolution that “it was precisely in those parts of France where there had been the most improvement that popular discontent ran highest.” Revolution is not generally provoked by deteriorating conditions rather, complaints tend to increase after conditions have already begun to improve. She sent me a new piece by Payne, in First Things, writing about the road to revolution. A reader of this blog says that the American academic historian Stanley Payne is the only reliable contemporary chronicler, in English, of the war. Many Americans don’t realize that the intelligentsia was, and is, heavily biased towards the Spanish Republican side, and against General Franco and the Nationalists. If you haven’t yet watched this six-part 1980s-era British TV documentary on YouTube, please do - even if it’s just the first episode (prelude to war). Y’all know that I am a big advocate of studying the Spanish Civil War, looking for insights about where we in the US might - might - be headed, and how we can avoid Spain’s fate.
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