The Making of Portuguese Democracy - Hardcover

Maxwell, Kenneth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521460778 ISBN 13: 9780521460774

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Synopsis

This vividly-written book is the first comprehensive assessment of the origins of the present-day democratic regime in Portugal to be placed in a broad international historical context. After a vibrant account of the collapse of the old regime in 1974, it studies the complex revolutionary period that followed, and the struggle in Europe and Africa to define the future role of Europe's then poorest country. International repercussions are examined and comparisons are drawn with the more general collapse of communism in the late 1980s.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This vividly written book is the first comprehensive assessment of the origins of the present-day democratic regime in Portugal to be placed in a broad international historical context. It is written with the benefit of a long-term vision of Portuguese history, and it emphasizes the significance of Portugal's new European orientation after centuries of global and oceanic preoccupations. After an account of the collapse of the old regime in 1974, the book studies the complex revolutionary period that followed, and the struggle in Europe and Africa to define the future role of Europe's then poorest country. These events also had international repercussions which transformed the balance of forces in southern Africa, following the collapse of Europe's last overseas empire. The consequent actions and reactions of the European powers and the United States are examined, and telling comparisons are also drawn with later developments in Eastern Europe and with the wider collapse of the communist movement.

Review

"Maxwell provides a fascinating account, succinct yet comprehensive, of the turmoil that followed the April 1974 coup that overthrew what was left of the authoritarian regime built by António Salazar." Foreign Affairs

"Maxwell tells the story with a vividness and richness of detail that makes his a 'rattling good yarn.'" Comparative Politics

"...potent and persuasive combination of academic strength and literary merit...fully deserves to become standard reading for all students of Portuguese history and politics." Ronald Cueto, International Affairs

"Maxwell brilliantly weaves together a discussion of events in Lisbon with critical moments in Portugal's erstwhile colonial empire in Africa, Europe's last, where the bulk of the Portuguese armed forces had been stationed since the early 1960s, engaged in a three-front war against independence movements in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau." American Political Science Review

"The first synthesis and best introduction in English to the Portuguese revolution...the most innovative aspect of Kenneth Maxwell's book is the excellent integration of the Portuguese transition into its international dynamic; this is simultaneously a history of the transition and of decolonization, the indivisibility of which is well captured in the narrative." António Costa Pinto in Expresso, Lisbon

"The first serious and rigorous analysis of the foundation of the post authoritarian regime...that will become without a doubt the basic point of reference in English for this period. The principal virtue of Kenneth Maxwell's book is his capacity to articulate the vision of the historian with the rigor of political analysis." Carlos Gaspar in Diário de Noticias, Lisbon

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0521460778
• ISBN 13: 9780521460774
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 268