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Article: Interpreting the Russian Revolution.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Interpreting the Russian Revolution. By Orlando Figes and Boris Kolonitskii. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. Pp. 198. $24.95.)
The theoretical premise of this book is to show the role of symbols or, to use the fashionable word, "discourse" in the February Revolution. This approach was first taken by an assortment of leftist philosophers of which Foucault was the most notable representative. The social/political life was viewed as the interplay of symbols, hence the popularity of "discourse." This approach was quite popular among the historians of the French Revolution. The appearance of this book shows that this approach was finally ...