Compares Robert Palmer's interpretation of the French Revolution with the Marxist and revisionist views. Stresses Palmer's theory that the French Revolution belongs to the same spiritual family as the American. Reports that Palmer saw the French Revolution as the climactic event in a series of similar upheavals that integrated liberal democracy…

Discusses opposing tendencies in the interpretation of Western Civilization. Describes the expanded definition that includes Byzantine and Islamic cultures as heirs of the Greco-Roman cultures. Suggests that a limited definition of Western culture will facilitate a problems approach, emphasize diversity among cultures, and integrate the classical…

Examines the influence of Karl Marx's writings on Adolf Hitler, and asks whether there was a causal nexus between Russian and Nazi atrocities. Uses primary sources as a method for historical comparison. Compares Hitler's writings on antisemitism with those of Marx. (NL)

Maintains the contemporary political Soviet scene poses a major intellectual challenge to Western Sovietology. Analyzes reforms of the Gorbachev era and traces the development of change and the concepts of glasnost and perestroika. Discusses recent policies, problems, and strategies. Views revolution as a prolonged process. (NL)

Discusses influences on the development of Russian nationalism. Describes the development of an intelligentsia and its relationship with both peasants and rulers. Addresses the influence of French and German political and religious thinkers. Emphasizes that the Napoleonic wars provided both a Russian patriotic bond and exposure of Russia's elite…

Discusses the treatment of Gypsies and the handicapped by Nazi Germany. Emphasizes that Gypsy populations were decimated in the same percentages as the Jews. Presents information and dates to show parallel developments of racial regulations against Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped. Urges further research and historiography on the fate of Gypsies…

Reviews works of cultural historians of the French Revolution. Analyzes interpretations of what constituted "the people" in three late eighteenth-century sources: Diderot's "Encyclopedie," contemporary political pamphlets, and Louis-Sebastien Mercier's vignettes of Parisian street life. Contends representation of "the…

Outlines revisionist interpretations of the French Revolution that challenged the dominant historiographical tradition during the 1950s and 1960s. Distinguishes four central characteristics of revisionist works. Identifies a key split in current French Revolution historiography between reflection on nineteenth-century…

Analyzes Geoffrey Elton's work on Tudor history and the English Reformation. Traces the development of Elton's ideas about narrative history and examines Elton's historiographical role as a disciple of Von Ranke. Claims Elton's work in Tudor studies reveals the "medieval-modern" dialectical tension. Considers ideological aspects of…