ABSTRACT
The looser definition of revolution suits both historians of major social change and historians of the palace coup. It does, however, raise certain difficulties. To avoid these difficulties, an alternative formulation has recently been put forward by a group of social scientists working mainly at Princeton. They have dropped the word “revolution” altogether and put “internal war” in its place. The most fruitful typology of revolution is that of Chalmers Johnson, set out in a pamphlet that deserves to be widely read. He sees six types, identified by the targets selected for attack, whether the government personnel, the political regime, or the community as a social unit; and by the nature of the carriers of revolution, whether as a mass or an elite. The six types are: Jacquerie, Millenarian Rebellion, Anarchist Rebellion, Jacobin Communist Revolution, Conspiratorial Coup d’Etat, and Militarized Mass Insurrection.
