Revolution

Description

The twentieth century was an age of revolutions. As the pace of social and economic change quickened and the savagery of technological warfare destabilized societies, intolerable pressures were created which exploded into violent political movements. Revolution examines all the key revolutions of the era, from the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, through the 1917 October Revolution, which overthrew the Tsarist regime in Russia, to those which accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union at the century's end. It also encompasses the democratic revolutions that overthrew a string of dictatorships from the 1980s onwards. Following the narrative thread through 17 revolutionary movements and illustrated with contemporary photographs and documents, this is an indispensable guide to a phenomenon that shaped and overshadowed much of the twentieth century.

Philip Parker is a freelance writer and editor. He is the author of The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Along the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.