Anatomy of Revolution

Crane Brinton’s theory of revolution which we all call, The Anatomy of Revolution has been the topic of our studies since we’ve gotten back to school. His theory has proved that almost all revolutions follow a certain pattern consisting of four stages. The incubation stage, the moderate stage, the crisis stage and finally, the recovery stage. 
Since we’re PLP students, we won’t just learn about his theory and be done with it, so our teacher told us to think of an in depth question. But before this question could be answered we had to show our understanding of his theory through our own diagram. This had to consist of mainly pictures and representations, barely any words.

My original question was whether or not the Anatomy of Revolution could’ve changed because of all of the technology that’s being developed but during my research I realized that there just aren’t enough modern revolutions today to perform the kind of study I’d need to answer my question so I managed to change my question. So the question I’ll now be answering is, based on Crane Brinton’s theory of revolutions, could ISIS be considered a revolution? Most of my research says yes, it could be and I found the perfect video to explain how it fits into the first two stages:

And as of right now, ISIS is in the middle of the third stage, doing whatever it takes, radicals in control and murder. Here’s a list explaining the worst things they’ve done since they’ve started which proves they’re in the crisis stage:

1: They slaughter children.

In January ISIS executed 13 teenage boys in Mosul because they were watching a soccer match on TV.

2: They kill gay men by hurling them off buildings. 

ISIS militants threw two men off a tower in Mosul in January because the men took part in “homosexual activities.”

3: They murder Shiites who pray in mosques.

On Friday, ISIS claimed credit for up to four suicide bombings that killed more than 100 Shiites in Yemen at two mosques and wounded hundreds more.

4: They execute their own soldiers.

ISIS killed up to 200 members of its own group between June 2014 and December 2014, the British-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reported. The reason? The men had second thoughts about joining and had tried returning home.

5: They kidnap women and sell them as sex slaves or force them to marry ISIS fighters.


Last year ISIS members captured Kurdish women and girls from Iraq’s minority Yazidi community and sold them to sex traffickers in the Middle East. The price range was $500 to $43,000 per woman.

6: They burn pilots in cages.

In early January ISIS burned alive a captured Jordanian pilot by locking him in a cage, dousing him with an inflammable liquid and setting him afire, videotaping the evil deed for the world to see, just as they have many of their most horrific acts.

7: They traffic in black market organs.


Using surgeons imported from other countries, ISIS harvests and sells human organs to exploit the lucrative international black market. They take the organs from their own deceased fighters as well as from their living captives and hostages.

8: They recruit child soldiers.


ISIS recruits or kidnaps children as young as six years old from Iraq, sends them to militant training camps and then plants them on the front lines at age nine. They also use the brainwashed children as human shields, as informants, and for blood transfusions for its own injured soldiers.

9: They destroy ancient cities and priceless artifacts.


Last week ISIS militants left a trail of destruction through the 2,800-year-old capital of the Assyrian empire, Khorsabad, famous for its 64-foot wall erected in 713 BC. ISIS previously attacked the ancient cities of Nimrud and Hatra. ISIS may be selling artifacts on the black market, though it’s also destroyed artifacts from Iraq’s Mosul Museum and the Mosul Public Library – including books from the Ottoman era and sand glass used by ancient Arabs.

10: They make chemical weapons.

ISIS has numerous bomb-making factories in Mosul.  At one site ISIS warned nearby residents earlier this year to beware of a gas leak, something had gone wrong during the making of a chlorine bomb.

So as of right now ISIS could be considered a revolution in the making, all we’re waiting for is the fourth step, the recovery stage. Where everything the people in the revolt were revolting against goes back to normal, just with slightly different people in charge.