Faces of Revolution in British Culture

Politics, Language and Literature

Silva, Jorge Bastos da

This study focuses on historical developments, ideological debates, and literary depictions of real or envisaged revolutions in order to show that the idea of a sudden, clean break with the past has gained comparatively little purchase in British culture over the centuries. Instead, an incremental spirit has predominated. The point is not that revolutions were never planned or attempted. It is, rather, that
the prevalent approach to the idea of revolution has been one that either denies the revolutionary character of the most profound changes or, if it recognizes it, one that derides revolutions as evils and mistakes. Authors covered range from William Shakespeare and John Milton in the Early Modern Period to the socialist George Orwell and the fascist Oswald Mosley in the twentieth century.