Revolutions and history

the long version

"This book offers a fresh framework for the historical understanding of revolutions and ideas about revolution. As the glow fades on the triumph of liberalism over the so-called Soviet revolutionary bloc, Revolutions and History shows how revolutions can be located in the longer worldwide spread of modernity. Seen in that setting, earlier views have persistently misconstrued the potential of revolution. Rather than being conscious steps forward into the future, revolutions have always been hazardous responses, disrupting and accommodating a complex historical process."--BOOK JACKET. "Yet if the potential of revolution has been overestimated, so has the meaning of its defeat. The author argues that revolutions do not matter just because they happen. They also have a meaning, and that meaning has historical impacts of its own."--BOOK JACKET. "This is a study that will interest students of revolution, of history, of international relations, and of modernity."--BOOK JACKET.