You Say You Want a Revolution?, Daniel Chirot
You Say You Want a Revolution?, Daniel Chirot
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You Say You Want a Revolution?
Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences

Author: Daniel Chirot

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 6 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2020


Synopsis

In You Say You Want a Revolution?, Daniel Chirot examines a wide range of right- and left-wing revolutions around the world—from the late eighteenth century to today—to provide important new answers to these critical questions. From the French Revolution of the eighteenth century to the Mexican, Russian, German, Chinese, anticolonial, and Iranian revolutions of the twentieth, Chirot finds that moderate solutions to serious social, economic, and political problems were overwhelmed by radical ideologies that promised simpler, drastic remedies. But not all revolutions had this outcome. The American Revolution didn't, although its failure to resolve the problem of slavery eventually led to the Civil War, and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe was relatively peaceful, except in Yugoslavia. From Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia to Algeria, Angola, Haiti, and Romania, You Say You Want a Revolution? explains why violent radicalism, corruption, and the betrayal of ideals won in so many crucial cases, why it didn't in some others—and what the long-term prospects for major social change are if liberals can't deliver needed reforms.

Author Bio

Daniel Chirot is the Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Henry Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of many books, including The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World with Scott L. Montgomery, which was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of the Year.

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