ABSTRACT
An earlier generation of social scientists viewed major forms of social
change in terms of class and social revolution.1 By the end of the twentieth
century, such approaches, if not completely extinguished, were smoldering.
Social class, as a major mover of social change was ‘‘dead.’’ John Dunn,
writing in 1972, anticipated many current interpretations when he said that
the ‘‘history of twentieth century revolution . . . is . . . a commentary on the falsity of . . . Marxism’’ (1972: 19).2 This paper will contend that such pronouncements, which since the end of state socialism have reached triumphalist dimensions, are untrue or at least grossly overstated.
