Reading a Revolution

After catastrophes like floods or hurricanes we see strange sights—the cow on the barn roof, the bed floating down Main Street. Revolutions, too, cast up strange sights that upset our expectations about the rightful order of things: religious leaders, messianic figures to their followers, who spread their calls for a return to tradition by tape cassettes and latter-day flagellants who march to the rhythm of a leader chanting into a bullhorn. Unlike the random consequences of natural forces,...