Emile, a more comprehensive response. You have never answered the questions I posed to you last December. For your convenience, I will repost them, and please do not bother posting any more stuff to me until you have answered them.
To: Emile Vidrine (26890 )
From: jbe
Thursday, Dec 10 1998 11:53PM ET
Reply # of 36535
<<My historical journey has convinced me that the Jews were the driving force
behind the Communist Russian Revolution of l917.>>
You know, it is odd. No non-physician would set up to practice medicine (unless he
were a crook). No non-lawyer would hang out a shingle to practice law. No
non-chemist would think of taking charge of a laboratory. And so on.
Why is it that people often forget it takes preparation to practice history? Because it
is so easy to read history, they think it is easy to interpret it.
Not so, however. And if you are going to try to develop a theory about the origin of
the Russian Revolution, Emile, you need at least the following:
1) A reading knowledge (and preferably a speaking knowledge as well) of Russian;
reading knowledge of French and German.
2) A thorough familiarity with the standard interpretations and secondary sources.
3) An ability to work with and to evaluate primary sources.
4) A knowledge of what materials are contained in which archives and libraries;
and also, if possible, access to surviving family members of notable (and not so
notable) figures of the Revolution.
Do you meet the above requirements, Emile? If so, can you specify the level of your
language preparation? How do you evaluate the latest scholarship on the Russian
Revolution? What works on the Russian Revolution do you most admire/agree
with? What archives have you worked in?
jbe
Message 6784498
For some of my replies to specific points (also from last December), see the following:
Message 6766332
Message 6785064
Some other people at the time, notably Steven Rogers, also took the time to respond to you. You might check out what they said at the time, instead of trying to start the whole discussion over from scratch.
I will post the URL of a response from nihil, simply because it struck me as absolutely hilarious:
Message 6785330
jbe
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