Great revolutions of the 20th century in a civilizational perspective

The great revolutions of modern times have been analyzed from various angles, but their civilizational aspects & contexts have on the whole been neglected. More specifically, the major 20th-century revolutions can be seen as particularly important cases of intercivilizational encounters. They represent different responses to the ascendant & challenging civilization of the West. The Western civilizational trajectory (or set of trajectories), based on a shift from fideism to empiricism & on multiple social dynamics fuelled by this cultural reorientation (eg, those of the capitalist economy & the one-nation-state), is selectively appropriated by non-Western societies that reject the less adaptable parts of the West in the name of traditional or invented alternatives. Russia, China, Turkey, & Iran are analyzed as variations of this recurrent pattern. At one end of the spectrum, the Russian revolution aspired to transcend Western models on the basis of a more radical interpretation of their own principles; at the other, the Iranian revolution, made up of several episodes with intervals in between, has been characterized by an exceptionally tenacious -- & in some ways inventive -- defense of a preexisting civilizational identity. 1 Table, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.