Section I. The Birth of the Modern Revolution (1700-1815) Section II. The Revolutionaries Regroup (1815-1848) Section III. The Spread of Revolution beyond Western Europe and the Americas (1848-1949) Section IV. The Post-Imperial World (1949-present) Bibliography Index
An introduction to global revolutions in modern history, tracing how the notion of revolution has evolved and surveying the key debates surrounding the topic.
Jack R. Censer is Professor of History at George Mason University, USA. His recent publications include On the Trail of the D.C. Sniper: Fear and the Media (2010) and Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution (2001).
While most studies of revolution attempt to uncover timeless
similarities in the causes and development of revolutions, Censer
explores the transformations over two and a half centuries of the
concept of revolution itself: the dramatic evolution in the
justifications, objectives, and strategies proposed by philosophers
and practitioners from Thomas Paine and Karl Marx through Frantz
Fanon, Che Guevara, and the Ayatollah Khomeini. It is an original
and enormously engaging tour d’horizon of the subject in a global
perspective, ideally suited for students young and old.
*Timothy Tackett, Univeristy of California - Irvine, USA*
Censer has written a very readable narrative of revolution as a
product of modern historical consciousness. Revolution has created
an arc of self-redefinition; even as its meanings are layered,
older ones are exchanged for newer ones to reach out to utopian
ideals.
*Prasenjit Duara, National University of Singapore*
Jack Censer’s aim is refreshingly bold: to conceptualise the
different meanings of revolution in the modern era and to assess
the importance of ideologies within them. He defines revolutions as
cultural movements that set out to transform the existing order,
both political and social, and in this book he adopts a global
perspective, tracing the development of revolutionary ideas from
America and France in the 1770s and 1790s to Iran and Tunisia
today. The result is a wide-ranging and often provocative analysis
that shows how the idea of revolution has evolved over the
centuries and across continents.
*Alan Forrest, University of York, UK*
Jack Censer has provided an enviably concise, lucid and thoughtful
introduction to this crucially important subject. For anyone
interested in understanding the ideas underpinning modern
revolutions, and how the phenomenon of revolution itself developed
through the modern period, Debating Modern Revolution is the
perfect starting point.
*David Bell, Princeton University, USA*
This is a sharp and insightful book and students will find it very
useful in dealing with a whole range of topics.
*Martin Simpson, University of the West of England, UK*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |