The Revolutionary Ascetic: Evolution of a Political Type

Why have the great revolutionary leaders of modern times—from Robespierre to Lenin and Mao Tse-tung—so often been ascetics, austere "puritans" with few emotional ties? What functions, political as well as personal, do these ascetic traits perform for the modern revolutionary leader and for his followers?

Noted historian and author Bruce Mazlish is convinced that, beginning in the nineteenth century, the needs of modernizing revolutions have produced a distinct new type of political leader, t...