This book, first published in 1930 and reissued in 1961, examines the Western phenomenon of the rise of the 'mass-man'. Analysing the state of society before the Second World War, acclaimed philosopher Ortega y Gasset lays bare the problems that faced the countries of Europe in a book that resonates today in the imposition of direct action over discussion.

As the centres of world capitalism struggle to overcome long-term stagnation and existential crisis, this book aims to recover the legacy of revolutions against capitalism and imperialism. The capitalist world today faces pervasive crises of unprecendented depth. To economic and social crises that were already deepening as the neoliberal decades wore on, it added the ecological emergency and then a pandemic of historic proportions, both made worse by political and ideological paralysis. These crises also raise the threat of imperialist war. The possibility of revolutionary change is increasingly in the air and this volume captures this extraordinary moment. Anticipating this situation, we at the Geopolitical Economy Research Group organized an international conference on Revolutions at the University of Manitoba, Canada, in 2017, to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, and this book stems from it. The editors' introduction interrogates the intimate relation of capitalism to revolutions, and scans the political horizon of the present conjuncture. The chapters that follow fill in this retrospect and prospect. The five keynote addresses provide the historical spine and they are supplemented by others from the conference and beyond. These chapters consider revolution from a variety of perspectives, including the revolutions in Russia, China and Venezuela but also the French and Haitian Revolutions; Marx's critical political economy and revolution; the long history of counter-revolution; revolution and indigenous peoples; the media and revolution and the importance of revolution at the grassroots. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

This essential introduction synthesizes the wealth of new material available on the Russian Revolution into a clear overview which is ideal for beginners. Leading expert Christopher Read treats the period 1914-22 as a whole in order to contextualize and better understand the events of 1917 and their impact.

This expanded, updated edition offers a new chapter on terrorism, including jihadism. Revolutions and state breakdowns are the primary focus as Sanderson presents prominent theories and describes the process of revolutions. The book covers famous revolutions from history (France, Russia, China) and several social and political revolutions in the third world (Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, and the Philippines). Given the frequency of revolutionary movements, a key question addressed by the book is Why are actual revolutions so rare? Sanderson also assesses the state breakdowns in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union after 1989, the typical outcomes of revolutions, and the future of revolutions. An appendix presents biographical and autobiographical sketches of several of the most prominent scholars of revolutions. "Features of this text and to the new Second Edition" "

This book, first published in 1981, examines the issues inspiring working-class movements after 1848 in France, Germany and Britain, with some consideration also of Austria, Italy, Spain and Russia. It concentrates on the attitudes of the ordinary working men, rather than the ideologies and the leaders, and considers the many different forms and manifestations of their grievances and means of expression. What emerges is the complexity of the connection between economic circumstances and protest, and the existence of wide divergences of behaviour amongst the European working class.

This book, first published in 1970, examines significant protest movements of the twentieth century and looks at the similarities and differences between the various dissents and rebellions. Beginning with the mood of weariness and dissatisfaction with the old regimes at the turn of the century, it discusses the emergence of protest as an ideal, a viable force for reform. From radical unionism, it traces the thread through bohemianism, international communism and anticolonialism in the twenties; fascism and Nazism and protest as a way of life up to 1945; the Afro-Asian and early civil rights movements of the fifties; and the agitating students and revolutionary movements of the sixties.

This book, first published in 1978, examines the independent political action by the thousands of working people in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. After a mass rally on the hills above the town, thousands of workers under a reg flag broke into insurrection - a detachment of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders marched into the town to restore order. The rebels repulsed the soldiers and held the town, with at least two dozen workers killed. Within weeks of the Rising, trade unions began to appear in South Wales, and this book argues that these events were central to the emergence of a Welsh working class.

The contributors to this book, first published in 1971, analyse as International Socialists the economic and social issues of modern society. Their findings were controversial, as was the alternative they proposed - the overthrow of the British system and its replacement by a society based on workers' control. A central theme of the book is the need for socialists to have a scientific view of the modern world - a socialist theory.

This book, first published in 1971, is a close analysis of some of the typical peasant uprisings of the seventeenth century. The goal of the movements in France and China was a return to an older and more traditional society, rather than a profound transformation of the social structure. In Russia, however, the peasants attempted to overturn the rigid order of a two-class structure and replace it with a more democratic society.

This book, first published in 1974, examines the diverse nature of popular protest in Britain. Movements varied immensely from one another in their objectives, their social composition, their tactics and the geographical milieu.

This book, first published in 1984, examines France's independent nuclear weapons programme of the 1980s alongside the French peace movement, which was almost totally absent - in contrast to the peace protests of the US and the rest of Europe. This book analyses this unusual pattern of defence and dissent, and assesses its likely development. It looks at the evolvement of French post-war defence policy, and discusses the French peace movement, attempting to explain why it was so weak.

The terrorist attacks in the United States on 9/11 and the U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan have intensified scrutiny of radical Islamic groups across Central Asia. This books offers one of the first comprehensive studies of the activities of one of the most feared - but least understood - inernational Islamist organizations in post-Soviet Central Asia: Hizb ut-Tahrir, that is The Party of Islamic Liberation. By utilizing social movement theory, the book analyses political Islam in Central Asia in general, and the phenomenon of Hizb ut-Tahrir in particular. It reveals the critical role of its ideology (based on a selective interpretation of Islamic theology and history) in the party's recruiting success. Using primary sources, including the group's publications and documents, official reports, alongside interviews with scholars, security experts, mullahs, journalists, diplomats, government officials and group members, it covers the rise of political Islam in the post-Soviet Central Asia, alongside the origins and current status of Hizb ut-Tahrir - its leadership, ideology, political methodology and party structure and its rise in the region from Kazakhstan to Russia and China. Although the organization has received less international examination partly because it has advocated a non-violent approach toward its goals, this book sketches its prospective future relationship to violence in this key region.

This book examines the evolution of national Arab media and its interplay with political change, particularly in emerging democracies in the context of the Arab uprisings. Investigated from a journalistic perspective, this research addresses the role played by traditional national media in consolidating emerging democracies or in exacerbating their fragility within new political contexts. Also analyzed are the ways journalists report about politics and transformations of these media industries, drawing on the international experiences of media in transitional societies. This study builds on a field investigation led by the author and conducted within the project "Arab Revolutions: Media Revolutions," covering Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt.

Bringing together scholarly essays and helpfully annotated primary documents, African Americans and the Haitian Revolution collects not only the best recent scholarship on the subject, but also showcases the primary texts written by African Americans about the Haitian Revolution. Rather than being about the revolution itself, this collection attempts to show how the events in Haiti served to galvanize African Americans to think about themselves and to act in accordance with their beliefs, and contributes to the study of African Americans in the wider Atlantic World.

Bringing together scholarly essays and helpfully annotated primary documents, African Americans and the Haitian Revolution collects not only the best recent scholarship on the subject, but also showcases the primary texts written by African Americans about the Haitian Revolution. Rather than being about the revolution itself, this collection attempts to show how the events in Haiti served to galvanize African Americans to think about themselves and to act in accordance with their beliefs, and contributes to the study of African Americans in the wider Atlantic World.

This book, first published in 1967, examines the implications of a now-forgotten minor riot that occurred in 1833, a turbulent year with the working classes striving for recognition in a changing social order. A political meeting in London had been declared illegal, the police breaking up the crowd were met with resistance, and in the fracas a policeman was stabbed to death. A bad-tempered inquest followed, at which the jury returned a verdict of justified killing - for which a section of the public hailed them as heroes. This analysis sets the crime and verdict against the political protests of the time.

This book, first published in 1966, focuses on the stories of ordinary people who have stood up to tyrants around the world. A German opposes Hitler; a Rabbi in South Africa protests apartheid; an Algerian lawyer remains true to the law; a Polish writer fights the Nazis, and the Communists; an Irish playwright is caught up in the fight against the British; and a Hungarian Jewish poet recites poetry in concentration camps. Together they form an examination of political opposition, and a testimony.

This book, first published in 1980, is a comprehensive study of the radical theatre movement in Britain from 1968 to 1978. The essays are based on first-hand interviews, with each section being introduced with a summary of key events before detailing the artists under examination.

'a vital resource' TLS 'Compelling collection' Literary Review The Reformation was a seismic event in history whose consequences are still unfolding in Europe and across the world. Martin Luther's protests against the marketing of indulgences in 1517 were part of a long-standing pattern of calls for reform in the Christian Church. But they rapidly took a radical and unexpected turn, engulfing first Germany, and then Europe, in furious arguments about how God's will was to be 'saved'. However, these debates did not remain confined to a narrow sphere of theology. They came to reshape politics and international relations; social, cultural, and artistic developments; relations between the sexes; and the patterns and performances of everyday life. They were also the stimulus for Christianity's transformation into a truly global religion, as agents of the Roman Catholic Church sought to compensate for losses in Europe with new conversions in Asia and the Americas. Covering both Protestant and Catholic reform movements, in Europe and across the wider world, this compact volume tells the story of the Reformation from its immediate, explosive beginnings, through to its profound longer-term consequences and legacy for the modern world. The story is not one of an inevitable triumph of liberty over oppression, enlightenment over ignorance. Rather, it tells how a multitude of rival groups and individuals, with or without the support of political power, strove after visions of 'reform'. And how, in spite of themselves, they laid the foundations for the plural and conflicted world we now inhabit.

The American Civil Rights Movement: A documentary history collects in a single, brief volume, documents reflecting key aspects of the Civil Rights Movement: the voices of social activists (and opponents), the legal struggle in the courts, and governmental responses to civil rights issues - public statements, executive orders, legislation. The book is a deliberate attempt to address the shortcomings of capsule histories of the Movement, histories that neglect to describe the range of public and private institutions, organizations, and individuals that contributed to - and hindered - its accomplishments. The introductory essays, providing narrative or analytical background, combined with the range of documents presented, allows the book to serve as an excellent supplement to textbook treatments of modern U.S. history, African American history, and/or the Civil Rights Movement. The book includes over 100 documents - personal narratives, court decisions, news reports, letters, legislation - that provide the reader with insights into the philosophies, strategies, personalities of the Movement. -- .

Recent revisionist history has questioned the degree of social and economic change attributable to the French Revolution. Some historians have also claimed that the Revolution was primarily an urban affair with little relevance to the rural masses. This book tests these ideas by examining the Revolutionary, Napoleonic and Restoration attempts to transform the tenure of communal land in one region of southern France; the department of the Gard. By analysing the results of the legislative attempts to privatize common land, this study highlights how the Revolution's agrarian policy profoundly affected French rural society and the economy. Not only did some members of the rural community, mainly small-holding peasants, increase their land holdings, but certain sectors of agriculture were also transformed; these findings shed light on the growth in viticulture in the south of France before the monocultural revolution of the 1850s. The privatization of common land, alongside the abolition of feudalism and the transformation of judicial institutions, were key aspects of the Revolution in the countryside. This detailed study demonstrates that the legislative process was not a top-down procedure, but an interaction between a state and its citizens. It is an important contribution to the new social history of the French Revolution and will appeal to economic and social historians, as well as historical geographers.

Afro-Cuban Identity in Post-Revolutionary Novel and Film examines the changing discourse on race as portrayed in Cuban novels and films produced after 1959. Andrea Easley Morris analyzes the artists' participation in and questioning of the revolutionary government's revision of national identity to include the unique experience and contributions of Cuban men and women of African descent. While the Cuban revolution brought sweeping changes that vastly improved the material condition of many Afro-Cubans, at the time overrepresented among Cuba's poor and marginalized, the government's official position was that racial inequities had been resolved as early as 1962. Although a more open dialogue on race was cut short, the work of several novelists and film directors from the late 1960s and 70s expresses the need to explore what was gained and lost by Afro-Cubans in the early years of the revolution, among them Manuel Granados, Miguel Barnet, Nivaria Tejera, Sara Gomez, Cesar Leante, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Sergio Giral, and Manuel Cofino. Their works participate in the process of redefining Cuban national identity that took place after the revolution and, more specifically, they explore the place of Afro-Cuban identity within a broader notion of revolutionary "Cubanness." This occurs through an emphasis on Afro-Cuban cultural practices that have constituted forms of resistance to colonial and neo-colonial oppression. This book examines the identity conflicts portrayed in these works and takes into account the artists' negotiation of their own status within the revolutionary context by looking at the narrative strategies used to address racial issues within the constraints placed on cultural production in Cuba after 1962.

In 2000 a beheaded journalist was found in a remote forest near Kyiv. The corpse led to a scandal when it was revealed that it was that of a journalist critical of the authorities. The President was heard on tapes, made covertly in his office, ordering violence to be undertaken against the journalist. The scandal led to the creation of a wide protest movement that culminated in the victory of democratic opposition parties in 2002. The democratic opposition, led by its presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, fought a bitter and fraudulent election campaign in 2004 during which he was poisoned. Widespread election fraud led to Europe's largest protest movement since the Cold War which became known as the Orange Revolution, known after the campaign colour of the democratic opposition. This book is the first to provide a collection of studies surveying different aspects of the rise of the Ukraine's democratic opposition from marginalization, to protest against presidential abuse of office and culminating in the Orange Revolution. It integrates the Kuchmagate crisis of 2000-2001 with that of the Orange Revolution four years later providing a rich, detailed and original study of the origins of the Orange Revolution. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

This book explores rural political change in China from 1850 to 1949 to help us understand China's transformation from a weak, decaying agrarian empire to a unified, strong nation-state during this period. Based on local gazetteers, contemporary field studies, government archives, personal memoirs and other primary sources, it systematically compares two key macro-regions of rural China - the North China plain and the Yangzi delta - to demonstrate the ways in which the forces of political change, shaped by different local conditions, operated to transform the country. It shows that on the North China plain, the village community composed mainly of owner-cultivators was the focal point for political mobilization, whilst in the Yangzi delta absentee landlordism was exploited by the state for local control and tax extraction. However, these both set the stage, in different ways, for the communist mobilization in the first half of the twentieth century. Peasants and Revolution in Rural China is an important addition to the literature on the history of the Chinese Revolution, and will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the course of Chinese social and political development.