Chronicler of Betrayed Revolutions:

...The first is phrased most eloquently by the author himself in his dedication...

...into the blind alley of esotism, failure and exploitation...

...Althoush his methods are those of a debunker, he is primarily an upholder of basic revolutionary values, regardless of how they have been trampled upon or distorted...

...But, though sound and logical, Nomad's pessimistic interpretation of the mechanism of social change is open to question—and not merely on sentimental grounds...

...The Socialists, despite an initial devoutness to proclaimed principles, have gradually abdicated their position, sometimes under the genuine pressure of the modern world's complexities, more frequently because they were forced to "maintain the newly won privileges" of those among them who attained power...

...To the casual reader, Nomad may appear to have lost faith, and to advocate submission to an unpleasant fate...

...The masses, Nomad says, remain "hopelessly benighted and gullible, ready to submit to any form of servitude...

...Nomad's book is really a study of how those who set out to do justice and win freedom betray these very values in the process of realizing them...

...A Pericles in Greece, a Caesar in Rome and, in our own times, a Franklin D. Roosevelt or a Clement Attlee demonstrate that the misuse of power is not always inevitable...

...He is truly the chronicler of political man's follies and betrayals...

...Actually, the opposite is true...

...They are nameless, it is true, but must ideals always he dressed in surnames...

...In the introduction, Edmund Wilson writes that "one gets a distinct impression that Max Nomad keeps a filing case in which he puts away, as he happens on them, examples of the various types of paradox involved in Left-wing politics...

...Yet, the recurrent usage of the word "freedom" in this context reflects not only that quality of American life which is the envy of so many people elsewhere, but also the limited meaning most Americans assign to the idea of revolt...

...And it is precisely the conflict between Nomad's idealism, which has guided him throughout his life, and his unusual gift for seeing things as they are that makes his book so important and illuminating...

...To them, it is the desire for justice, as well as freedom, that motivates and gives flesh to an act of revolt, regardless of its eventual consequences...

...Confronted with this paradox, Americans generally advance a number of explanations, most of them valid but —upon reflection—not quite satisfactory...

...nor does it have to be the ultimate aim of human nature...

...Within every movement and every group there remains, even at the point of moral crisis, a large body of "pure idealists" who perpetuate the cause...

...where freedom exists, revolutions become superfluous...

...Inscribing his book to "all rebels against tyranny, privilege, and intolerance, who perished before tasting the poisonous fruit of victory and power," Nomad reveals the eternal source of social protest: the genuine desire to seek justice and freedom...

...The history of modern radical movements, Nomad believes, does not inspire much hope that the loudly proclaimed slogans of social justice will ever be realized...

...While it is dangerous to ignore the egotistic side of human nature and its consequences in the realm of political action, it is equally dangerous to lose sight of the other, more generous characteristics in man...

...Europeans associate revolution not only with freedom, but also, and perhaps primarily, with social justice...

...This may be literally true, since Nomad's facts are always painstakingly correct and his background knowledge unequalled...

...Behind his irony and bitter exposure of the lie, the author believes "in a constant struggle for improving the conditions of life and reducing the temperature of hell to which are condemned those who because of the accident of birth or origin, or lack of brutality, energy, cunning or unusual talents" are deprived of the privileges now enjoyed by the few...

...Power need not corrupt absolutely...

...It is in this light that Max Nomad's most recent book, Aspects of Revolt, must be interpreted, although both his approach to the problem and his conclusions are a painful refutation of this idealistic and—as he would hold—naive point of view...

...True to Pareto's concept of the "circulation of elites," in Nomad's view, one victorious group supersedes another, after a struggle undertaken initially in the name of equality...

...Perhaps if social justice were understood here as it is in Europe, Nomad would occupy a more significant place in the annals of American social thought...

...Second, Nomad's attitude toward power (even if we accept the fact that power is the sole aim of all political action, revolution included) is much too absolute...

...It is an incomplete picture of history which judges human behavior only by the actions of a select few, however prominent they may be...

...He has the rare courage to hold up to public view a dream that others have reduced to a nightmare...

...With the exceptions of Peter Kropotkin, the great anarchist whose motives and performance are not questioned openly, and Kropotkin's friend Waclaw Machajski, who together with Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto and Robert Michels have most noticeably influenced Nomad's political thinking, Nomad views all revolutionary thinkers and activists as illustrations of his thesis: Once man has acquired power, he "is more interested in maintaining it and his newly won privileges than in creating an earthly paradise for the masses" in whose name he first uttered his cry of protest...

...There are two reasons why Nomad's pessimism seems to me exaggerated...

...Having won its freedom (for the American Revolution was fought in the name of national freedom), they argue, America has settled down to solving its economic and social affairs by those means which freedom permits...

...contributor, "Partisan Review" "Saturday Review" It is one of the more puzzlingphenomena of American life that the heirs to the most successful democratic revolution in mankind's history are, for the most part, uninterested in problems connected with the idea of revolution...

...Has power always been used for evil purposes, even by those who openly profess to seek it...

...I do not want to give the impression that Nomad's book is merely a brilliant exposé of that aspect of political action which drives everyone, the leaders as well as the led...

...What Nomad does is to warn us against putting too much trust in the rhetorics and rituals performed for our benefit by self-annointed or law-appointed leaders who promise all and deliver little...

...Must power be evil incarnate...

...The most successful group, the Communist movement, has for decades engaged in building an intricate superstructure of evasions, hypocrisy and silence in order to obscure a base of oppression, medieval orthodoxy and poverty...

...It is this devotion to the ideals of social justice that makes Nomad's writing so relevant and important...