Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Studies

From the American Revolution to the conflicts in Afghanistan, revolutions have played a critical role in the course of history. Insight into the causes of revolutions and the factors that shape their outcomes is critical to understanding politics and world history--and REVOLUTIONS is a reader designed to address this need. Part One offers a combination of classic treatises and late-breaking scholarship that develops students' theoretical understanding of revolutionary movements. Part Two shows students how these theories play out in real life through rich, accessible accounts of major revolutionary episodes in modern history.

Jack A. Goldstone is Professor of Sociology and International Relations at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of the prize-winning REVOLUTION AND REBELLION IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD (California 1981), and editor of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS (Congressional Quarterly 1998), and REVOLUTIONS OF THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Westview 1991). He has been a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and held Fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is working on a monograph--REVOLUTIONS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND SOCIAL CHANGE--forthcoming from Harvard University Press.