This is fascinating! Wonder if there are some historical analyses regarding the gathering of violence at the very beginning of the revolution.

Very interesting. Also nice to be informed on not so recent, but still relevant debates. Personally it gives me some context to some of literature on Vietnam from the same time period. However, on the general question of violence I'd like to stress that there is a lot of contingency as well, often in direct relation to the amount of repression by the old system. I doubt that newer research will support the claim that violence is of integral necessity to fulfill revolutionary aims. That there is the bad habit of practically using violence to achieve aims is another story. In the context of "Revolution from Above" I would like to refer to the One-Child-Policy whose violent aspects according to more recent research were not needed to achieve the overall aim.

Insanely rambling and boring. All talk and no content