Revolutionary moments compress history so improvisation outweighs long-term structures

Evidence

Some historians prefer to look at the longue durée, explaining social transformations through long-term changes in structures taking place below the surface, rather than individual choices. But revolutionary situations, especially of the type experienced since 2010, compress time and speed up the flow of history. They are “moments where the strangest improvisations can suddenly change the course of events,” wrote Georgi M. Derluguian, a sociologist of Armenian, Russian, and Ukrainian descent. A century ago, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin apparently said that “there are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.” But in cities in the twenty-first century, things move even more quickly than that, notes US political scientist Mark Beissinger, meaning there is little time to process what is happening and reflect on the next course of action. Decisions are made instantly, often based on something already learned in the past, and these decisions really matter. Within these moments of “thickened history,” the short term can play the role of the long term. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 55

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces and explains the useful concept of ‘thickened history,’ where short-term events do the work long-term drifts usually perform.
• XREF: Connects to Lenin’s ‘weeks when decades happen’ cliche and to broader literature on eventful temporality in social movements. — connects to: Revolutionary moments compress time so individuals’ instant decisions shape history; Revolution’s power lies in temporal form rather than practical content — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 515; Missed revolutionary moments leave only false immediacy or infinite deferral as options — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1198 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Revolutionary moments compress time so individuals’ instant decisions shape history #expands (0.96)
• Human improvisation is regulated by historically situated conditions #complicates (0.88) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 2147
• The inevitability of history is an illusion of hindsight rather than real determinism #corroborates (0.87) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 216
• Revolution’s power lies in temporal form rather than practical content #expands (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 515
• A fully conscious model of historical action fails to capture history’s impersonality #complicates (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 455
• Ideology disrupts predicted historical processes and enables revolutions #corroborates (0.78)
• Revolutionary situations recur often but rarely become outcomes #qualifies (0.76)
• Missed revolutionary moments leave only false immediacy or infinite deferral as options #qualifies (0.74) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1198
• Academic history reabsorbed revolutionary newness back into serial continuity #complicates (0.72) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 724