According to Alexis de Tocqueville's influential work on the Old Regime and the French Revolution, royal centralisation had so weakened the feudal power of the nobles that their remaining privileges became glaringly intolerable to commoners. This book challenges the theory by showing that when Louis XVI convened assemblies of landowners in the late 1770s and 1780s to discuss policies needed to resolve the budgetary crisis, he faced widespread opposition from lords and office holders. These elites regarded the assemblies as a challenge to their hereditary power over commoners. The king's government comprised seigneurial jurisdictions and venal offices. Lordships and offices upheld inequality on behalf of the nobility and bred the discontent motivating the people to make the French Revolution. -- .

This book, first published in 1989, is an analysis of what changed in 1789 with the French Revolution and what contemporary life owes to the event. It was not simply a series of events with worldwide repercussions, but also represented the foundation of the middle-class domination of social, cultural and political space, which survives today and is the site of major crises of public culture. One such site is the body. In spite of its prominence in consumer culture as an object of adornment and beautification, the human body retains none of its historic dignity and authority. The argument of this book is that the French Revolution played a crucial part in this diminution of the body. It traces revolutionary models of behaviour around the body and public life, and explains how such myths as the division between public and private, male and female worlds, and such masculine values as 'objectivity' were an integral part of the new public world created by the revolutionary middle class.

This book, first published in 1920, is an analysis of socialist trends and a synthesis of proletarian aims. It attempts to establish the new political philosophy of left-wing socialists and coins a new term, 'ergatocracy' to mean 'workers' rule' and the abolishment of class in the organisation of society.

This book, first published in 1984, analyses the background to the revolution in Grenada and details the course of its progress, examining the reasons why it faltered and failed. International factors played no small part in these events, setting the agenda for the internal processes of the revolution and bringing it to an end. The book also examines closely the US-led invasion of this tiny island and its aftermath.

This book, first published in 1977, traces the origins of the left-wing Portuguese army rebellion of 1974 that overthrew the 50-year-old authoritarian regime of Prime Ministers Salazar and Caetano to the traditional political independence of the armed forces, their increasingly strained relations with the regime, and finally to the colonial wars which brought professional discontent to boiling point. The Portuguese revolution which followed provides a unique laboratory for the study of an army in crisis, the strains which the attempt by officers to direct the political life of the country after April 1974 placed on military organisation; the traditional career patterns and attitudes of soldiers and on discipline. It examines the role of officers in government and the day-to-day problems which political upheaval created in every barracks. This is a study both of the armed forces in politics and politics in the armed forces, placed within the larger context of the revolution.

This book, first published in 1987, is a solid, analytical exploration of the complex dynamics of the revolutionary economic transformation from 1979 to 1986. This collection of eleven essays provides a clear picture of the goals, internal debates, external influences and shifting policy decisions which affected the efforts of the Sandinista government. They help to clarify the dynamics between soaring food prices and falling wages, and explain the complex relationship between the private sector and the state. They also document the policies of the Reagan administration toward the Sandinista government.

This book, first published in 2000, uses interpretations of the French Revolution as a model to ask what history meant to Victorian Britain, how events became enshrined with the authority of history, and how such cultural assumptions might help us to read nineteenth-century British literature. By examining reactions to French revolution in a broad selection of texts, this book explores how the Victorians responded to developments in France in historical terms, repeatedly comparing new events to the touchstone of the first French Revolution, yet always with the goal of finding ways to understand Britain's own past, present and future.

This book, first published in 1979, analyses the German November Revolution of 1919 and the years and conditions that led to it. It examines the economic, social and political background of the Ruhr up to the coal miners' strike of 1912; how the war aggravated social hardship and rifts in the workers' party; and, in detail, the revolution itself.

This book, first published in 1962, is a collection of essays on the ideological origins of the European revolutionary movement. The first essay in the collection is devoted to Saint-Simon who, though not a revolutionary in the ordinary sense, was the begetter of the many ideas which became stock-in-trade of the nineteenth century revolutionaries. The essays that follow are on Marx and the Communist Manifesto, Proudhon, Herzen, Lassalle and Sorel; on the foundation and early history of the Russian Communist Party; on the histories of the British and German Communist Parties; and on Lenin and Stalin.

This book, first published in 1964, collects a number of essays united by the general theme of national and social revolution. They examine features of revolutionary movements, and, particularly, revolutionary leadership in an analysis of the social conditions and personal motives which impel men towards forming revolutionary elites.

This book, first published in 1991, analyses the role of women in the Eritrean struggle for independence. Emerging from a semi-feudal world, these women - peasants and pastoralists, student activists and workers from the cities - participated fully in the Eritrean revolution. They have organized cells, gathered intelligence, carried out clandestine missions, set up and ran health and education systems and fought on the front line, and in transforming themselves they have transformed Eritrea.

This book, first published in 1998, studies the social impact of Doi Moi, a policy of economic renovation, on the living conditions in state forest enterprises and agricultural cooperatives in northern Vietnam. It compares the authors' findings with those of 1987, before the formal adoption of the new economic policies - essentially the opening up of the economy to market forces.

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion , Chris Hedges- who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class - investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as sublime madness" , the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this sublime madness."From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.

This book, first published in 1935, examines the lives of seven revolutionary women: Charlotte Corday, Theroigne de Mericourt, Flora Tristan, Louise Michel, Vera Figner, Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg. The revolutionary impulses of these remarkable women emerge as the natural result of the historical associations of their age, but the author concludes that some sacrifices were made in vain because there was no strong revolutionary movement behind them. This book is a key analysis of the reasons behind the revolt of these women against their systems of society, and why some of them thought it worth while to die if necessary for the principles in which they believed.

This book, first published in 1982, examines the reality of the so-called revolution in Afghanistan. It focuses on the career of Hafizullah Amin, considered in the West as a near-genocidal mass murderer, intent on establishing a personal fiefdom in Afghanistan. However, this book argues that he was a man struggling against impossible odds to preserve his country's independence and at the same time drag it into the twentieth century. He commanded such loyalty and support within the Afghanistan Communist Party and the armed forces that the Russians had to invade to get rid of him.

This book, first published in 1998, is an original and comprehensive study of a key period of Russian history, between the success of the autocracy in retaining power in the 1905 Revolution and the debacle of the Tsar's crushing defeat in 1917. Focusing on Stolypin, Prime Minister between 1906-11, the study explores tsarism's final attempt to reform Russia. Stolypin seized the opportunity to drive through a programme which would have transformed the social and political structure of Imperial Russia by promoting the development of an independent peasantry and reducing the authority of the traditional elites. The book analyses the weakness of the new parliamentary system and the continuing influence of the traditional elites.

This book, first published in 1972, is an analysis of popular movements, political convulsions and settlements that led to and resulted from the climax of the First World War and its aftermath. It considers the aims, achievements and failures of both the Allied and Central Powers, the major internal changes which took place during and just after the war, and the significance of the newly shaped Europe and Near East which emerged from the peace treaties.

This book provides a juridical, sociopolitical history of the evolution of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Over one million citizens were massacred in less than 100 days via a highly organized, efficiently executed genocide throughout the tiny country of Rwanda. While genocide is not a unique phenomenon in modern times, a genocide like Rwanda's is unique. Unlike most genocides, wherein a government plans and executes mass murder of a targeted portion of its population, asking merely that the majority population look the other way, or at most, provide no harbor to the targeted population (ex: Germany), the Rwandan government relied heavily on the civilian population to not only politically support, but actively engage in the acts of genocide committed over the 100 days throughout the spring of 1994. This book seeks to understand why and how the Rwandan genocide occurred. It analyzes the colonial roots of modern Rwandan government and the development of the political "state of exception" created in Rwanda that ultimately allowed the sovereign to dehumanize the minority Tutsi population and execute the most efficient genocide in modern history.

This book, first published in 1986, provides a comprehensive look at the social, cultural, political and economic forces that shaped Libya following the 1969 revolution. Libya's political system under Qadhafi's Third Universal Theory is examined, as are the power structures - military, tribal, economic and religious.

This book, first published in 1978, examines the local and international aspects of the struggle for Greek union with Cyprus - Enosis. The revolt against the British colonial power was a struggle in which guerrilla warfare, political action and international diplomacy were integrated to bring about union with Greece under the camouflaged objectives of self-determination and anti-colonialism. This book traces the origins of the dispute from the Greek War of Independence of 1821 and then deals in depth with the revolt and its international repercussions up to Independence in 1960 and the Turkish military intervention of 1974.

This book, first published in 1960, is an analysis of the turbulent and revolutionary world politics of the 15 years following the Second World War. It examines the main themes of revolutionary forces, totalitarianism and imperialism, including, in detail, the social questions that lie behind them.

This book, first published in 1983, goes beyond the 'black and white' literature of many East-West observers to offer a more nuanced assessment of the achievements of the Eastern bloc countries of the early 1980s. It covers the emergence of 'Eastern Europe' from revolution and war, the politics and economics of the new countries and their relationships with the West.

This book, first published in 1984, presents a comprehensive survey of the forces of change that operate in the Caribbean, an area of political instability at the time. It examines the internal politics of the different countries and considers the roles of the United States, Cuba, the European and new Latin American powers in the political conflicts, coups and revolutions.

This book, first published in 1982, collects together a wide range of Western reportage on this major revolt in nineteenth century China. The extracts are contemporary, from eyewitnesses, and come from diplomatic and missionary reports, from books, newspapers, private journals, travel accounts and diaries. They provide a good overview of the response to this major crisis of Chinese society over a twenty-year period and the Western presence in mid-nineteenth century China.