This volume questions whether ideas of revolution are still relevant in the postmodern and globalized world of the twenty-first century.

Featuring contributions from some of the world's leading sociological and political thinkers on revolution, it combines theoretical concerns with a variety of detailed case studies of individual revolutions. Subjects covered include:

• democracy and revolution from 1789 to 1989
• twentieth century revolutions and theories of revolution, including Marxism, modernization and structuralist theories
• revolution in the "Third World" and the variable geometry of the paths to modernity
• Islamic revolutions and modernity
• the 1989 revolutions as "democratic revolutions" or "elite-led transitions"
• globalization, the nation-state and revolution
• empire and "democratic revolution"
• network society and revolution
• Islamic fundamentalism, international terrorism and revolution
• democratic revolution as a new form of revolution
• postmodern theories of revolution
• new social movements, identities and new figures of revolution.

Revolution in the Making of the Modern World will be essential reading for students and scholars of comparative politics, political theory, revolution and political sociology.

This book analyzes the processes of social transformation in Iran from the height of the country's power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the Safavid dynasty to the aftermath of the startling revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy in 1979.

This book traces the transformation of Iran's social structure from the rise of the Safavid dynasty in 1501 to the dramatic social movements of the twentieth century. Rooted in the current debates in the sociology of development, the book offers a new assessment of the encounter of Iran with the West in light of a variety of social science theories including world systems, dependency, and political culture. John Foran presents a new synthesis of Iranian history, arguing that Iranian social structure is the historical product of both internal and external dynamics and that commercial, political, and military relations with the West shaped social arrangements in ways that activated a series of "populist" movements of resistance. He maintains that these movements have been only partially successful because they rested on fragile social bases and because foreign powers have continued to intervene in the country's affairs. Foran excels in making the 1979 Islamic Revolution intelligible in terms of Iran's history.

Big business, financial institutions, and capitalist powers have wreaked much havoc on the Third World in the name of development. This book re-imagines development through a careful and imaginative exploration of some of the many ways that culture - in the broadest sense of lived experience and its representation - can recenter resistance, suggest alternative models, and advance critiques of development as it is currently practiced. The diverse group of scholars and activists who contribute chapters to the volume engage with the puzzle of how best to conceptualize an alternative development that improves the living conditions of women and men in different parts of the world and simultaneously demands solutions that focus on the integration of gender, diversity, and development with the realities of people's lives.

In Theorizing Revolutions, some of the most exciting thinkers in the study of revolutions today look critically at the many theoretical frameworks through which revolutions can be understood and apply them to specific revolutionary cases.
The theoretical approaches considered in this way include state-centred perspectives, structural theory, world-system analysis, elite models, demographic theories and feminism and the revolutions covered range in time from the French Revolution to Eastern Europe in 1989 and in place from Russia to Vietnam and Nicaragua.

This volume questions whether ideas of revolution are still relevant in the postmodern and globalized world of the twenty-first century. Featuring contributions from some of the world's leading sociological and political thinkers on revolution, it combines theoretical concerns with a variety of detailed case studies of individual revolutions. Subjects covered include: democracy and revolution from 1789 to 1989 twentieth century revolutions and theories of revolution, including Marxism, modernization and structuralist theories revolution in the "Third World" and the variable geometry of the paths to modernity Islamic revolutions and modernity the 1989 revolutions as "democratic revolutions" or "elite-led transitions" globalization, the nation-state and revolution empire and "democratic revolution" network society and revolution Islamic fundamentalism, international terrorism and revolution democratic revolution as a new form of revolution postmodern theories of revolution new social movements, identities and new figures of revolution. Revolution in the Making of the Modern World will be essential reading for students and scholars of comparative politics, political theory, revolution and political sociology.

Taking Power analyzes the causes behind some three dozen revolutions in the Third World between 1910 and the present. It advances a new theory that seeks to integrate the political, economic, and cultural factors that brought these revolutions about, and links structural theorizing with original ideas on culture and agency. It attempts to explain why so few revolutions have succeeded, while so many have failed. The book is divided into chapters that treat particular sets of revolutions including the great social revolutions of Mexico 1910, China 1949, Cuba 1959, Iran 1979, and Nicaragua 1979, the anticolonial revolutions in Algeria, Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe from the 1940s to the 1970s, and the failed revolutionary attempts in El Salvador, Peru, and elsewhere. It closes with speculation about the future of revolutions in an age of globalization, with special attention to Chiapas, the post-September 11 world, and the global justice movement.

This volume re-imagines development through a careful and imaginative exploration of some of the many ways that culture - in the broadest sense of lived experience and its representation - can recenter resistance, suggest alternative models and advance critiques of development as it is currently practiced. The volume is organized around three central questions:

• How can development as it is currently propounded be 'refused' and how can such a refusal suggest ways toward a more equitable and liveable development?
• How are emergent discourses around science, sexuality, and gendered economies challenging dominant approaches to development?
• How do fictions and other cultural productions help envision alternatives to development?

This volume engages with the puzzle of how best to conceptualize an alternative development, one that improves the living conditions of poor people in the South and simultaneously demands a solution that focuses on the integration of gender, diversity and development with the realities of people's lives.

Approaching the issues of climate change and climate justice from a range of diverse perspectives including those of culture, gender, indigeneity, race, and sexuality, as well as challenging colonial histories and capitalist presents, Climate Futures boldly addresses the apparent inevitability of climate chaos. Seeking better explanations of the underlying causes and consequences of climate change, and mapping strategies toward a better future, or at a minimum, the most likely best-case world that we can get to, this book envisions planetary social movements robust enough to spark the necessary changes needed to achieve deeply sustainable and just economic, social, and political policies and practices. Bringing together insights from interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers, creatives and activists, Climate Futures argues for the need to get past us-and-them divides and acknowledge how lives of creatures far and near, human and non-human, are interconnected.

Is the era of revolution over? Did it end in 1989? It doesn't seem so in places like the West Bank, Peru, Mexico and Algeria and it may be just around the corner in many other locations. While the discourse and the locations of revolution may change, revolutions themselves will be with us for some time to come.
In Theorizing Revolutions, some of the most exciting thinkers in the study of revolutions today look critically at the many theoretical frameworks through which revolutions can be understood and apply them to specific revolutionaly cases. The theoretical approaches considered in this way include state-centred perpectives, structural theory, world-system analysis, elite models, demographic theories and feminism and the revolutions covered range in time from the French Revolution to that of Eastern Europe in 1989 and in place from Russia to Vietnam and Nicaragua.

Taking Power analyzes the causes behind some three dozen revolutions in the Third World between 1910 and the present. It advances a new theory that seeks to integrate the political, economic, and cultural factors that brought these revolutions about, and links structural theorizing with original ideas on culture and agency. It attempts to explain why so few revolutions have succeeded, while so many have failed. The book is divided into chapters that treat particular sets of revolutions including the great social revolutions of Mexico 1910, China 1949, Cuba 1959, Iran 1979, and Nicaragua 1979, the anticolonial revolutions in Algeria, Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe from the 1940s to the 1970s, and the failed revolutionary attempts in El Salvador, Peru, and elsewhere. It closes with speculation about the future of revolutions in an age of globalization, with special attention to Chiapas, the post-September 11 world, and the global justice movement.

Not long after Harry and Ashton Maxwell leave high school, their little east coast Town in upper New York state is under threat. When a beautiful girl comes knock at their door one day and tells of her brother's sudden disappearance. She requests that Thomas Maxwell, the brothers father take on the case, their father Thomas Maxwell who should have no problems in finding her brother, because after all he is a world famous detective. But while on the verge of starting to investigate the disappearance of the girl's brother, Andrew Crawford. Mr Maxwell attention is drawn towards an attack, which leaves Harry and Ashton to investigate the disappearance for themselves, with there friends Rex, a science geek and Jason a high school football jock. Their first mission begins. But as their adventure unfolds, it becomes clear that the disappearance and the attack are linked. With explosions and gun fights the two uncover a ordain plot which will leave the entire planet in their hands.

In this volume, a number of eminent historians, sociologists and political scientists who have spent their lives studying revolutionary processes reflect on the age of 20th century of revolution. They debate questions like: is the era of revolution over? What might the revolutions of the future look like? The face of transformative politics in the future and the directions of social change rest in large measure on the answers. A range of recent cases are taken up, from the intensely backward-looking movement of the Taliban in Afghanistan, to the magical revolution in progress in Chiapas.

Straddling disciplines and continents, Feminist Futures interweaves scholarship and social activism to explore the evolving position of women in the South. Working at the intersection of cultural studies, critical development studies and feminist theory, the book's contributors articulate a radical and innovative framework for understanding the linkages between women, culture and development, applying it to issues ranging from sexuality and the gendered body to the environment, technology and the cultural politics of representation. This revised and updated edition brings together leading academics, as well as a new generation of activists and scholars, to provide a fresh perspective on the ways in which women in the South are transforming our understanding of development.