ABSTRACT
Many of the misfortunes of the New Left, from its inception, and through the crises of the later 1960s, may be attributed to its lack of any comprehensive theory of revolution that would fit the circumstances of an advanced industrial society. When serious discussions of revolution began, it was mainly the inherited definitions and conceptions of it - those purveyed by the Old Left, including and especially in the new guise of Maoism - that were easily available. The reluctance to adopt fresh scenarios can be partly explained in terms of the forces arrayed against any urban revolutionary movement. Given that a large counter-revolutionary movement is growing, the radical movement has to choose the ground it knows best, to struggle on. In addition to the nonviolent creation of the orders of political freedom, previous revolutions had been characterized by many others, sometimes neglected or ignored, components.
