Response

Arno Mayer sets his response to the adverse criticisms of The Furies in the framework of his contextual, comparative, pluridisciplinary, and conceptual approach to history. He explains why he compares the Furies of the French and Russian revolutions rather than of the Nazi and Soviet regimes; why he emphasizes the complex dynamics of vengeance rather than of ideology in the escalation of revolutionary and counterrevolutionary violence; and why he makes a homologic comparison of the “externalization” of the terror during the Napoleonic wars and the “internalization” of the terror during the Soviet regime under Stalin. Expanding on Fitzpatrick’s blueprint, Mayer concludes with some theoretical reflections on the social context of ressentiment that might help explain, in part, why the rhetoric and practice of vengeance become exceptionally lethal in revolutionary moments.