The Erosion of Secular Revolutions

By Alan Wolfe. "Revolutions devour their own children." (The line is usually attributed to the German playwright Georg Büchner, although it has been repeated so often that authorship hardly matters.) It is also incorrect; it ought to tell us that revolutions chew up the parents who launch them. In The Paradox of Liberation, a fascinating excursion into the ironies of political action, the political philosopher Michael Walzer adds a new twist: Secular revolutions unwittingly give rise to religious zealotry. More...