The Best Revolutionary History Books 2024

1. America's Other War: Terrorizing Colombia [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. 'Colombia is the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the hemisphere. The sources are deeply rooted in Colombia's own history, and in policies of the hegemonic power that are no less deeply rooted in its own history and institutions. This study provides a uniquely perceptive analysis of the tragic interaction, and its far-reaching implications for understanding the past and the evolving global order' - Noam Chomsky 'US administrations keep finding new excuses for intervening in Latin American affairs. Colombia is the most blatant example, as Doug Stokes' trenchant account of the US's shifting agenda - from Cold War, to guerrillas, then the drug trade, and now the 'war on terror' - so forcefully shows. Whether called imperialism or technical assistance, the consistent result is state terror and human suffering on a vast scale' - James Petras: Professor of Sociology (retired), Binghamton University, New York 'The two great turning-points of the last few years have, or so we've been told, have been the end of the Cold War and 9/11. Not so, argues Doug Stokes in this most challenging of volumes. For those looking for reassurance this is not the book for them: for those however seeking to peel back the layers of officialese and get to the heart of things this is a must read' - Professor Michael Cox, London School of Economics and Editor of International Politics 'This is a well-researched and impeccably documented expose of U.S. duplicity and intervention in Colombia. This book fills a critical gap in the literature on Colombia and on post-Cold War inter-American relations. It also has wider implications for International Relations theory and for our understanding of transnational conflict in this era of globalization' - William I. Robinson, professor of Sociology, Global and International studies, and Latin American and Iberian Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara 'America's Other War paints a very disturbing picture. With very thorough research and a highly readable narrative, Terrorizing Colombia goes beyond the liberal-conservative debate over Plan Colombia, the 'war on drugs' and the 'war on terror', reminding us of the central role played by the often brutal pursuit of economic interests' - Adam Isacson, Director of Programs, Center for International Policy, Washington

America's Other War : Terrorizing Colombia, Used [Paperback]

2. Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied for Ireland [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Michael Collins has exercised a fascination since his death in 1922 at the age of thirty-one. This book concentrates on the crucial role played by women in his personal and working life. From his boyhood in an overwhelmingly female household in West Cork onwards, women brought out the best in him and he brought out the best in women.

Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied for Ireland, Used [Paperback]

3. Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A History, Used [Hardcover]

From the author of A People's Tragedy , an original reading of the Russian Revolution, examining it not as a single event but as a hundred-year cycle of violence in pursuit of utopian dreams In this elegant and incisive account, Orlando Figes offers an illuminating new perspective on the Russian Revolution. While other historians have focused their examinations on the cataclysmic years immediately before and after 1917, Figes shows how the revolution, while it changed in form and character, nevertheless retained the same idealistic goals throughout, from its origins in the famine crisis of 1891 until its end with the collapse of the communist Soviet regime in 1991. Figes traces three generational phases: Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who set the pattern of destruction and renewal until their demise in the terror of the 1930s; the Stalinist generation, promoted from the lower classes, who created the lasting structures of the Soviet regime and consolidated its legitimacy through victory in war; and the generation of 1956, shaped by the revelations of Stalin's crimes and committed to "making the Revolution work" to remedy economic decline and mass disaffection. Until the very end of the Soviet system, its leaders believed they were carrying out the revolution Lenin had begun. With the authority and distinctive style that have marked his magisterial histories, Figes delivers an accessible and paradigm-shifting reconsideration of one of the defining events of the twentieth century.

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 : A History, Used [Hardcover]

4. Michael Collins: The Secret File [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. This volume gives an insight into the undercover surveillance carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary during the time when Michael Collins was recruiting and drilling the flying columns of the imminent War of Independence.

Michael Collins: The Secret File, Used [Paperback]

5. Tom Paine: A Political Life, Used [Hardcover]

"More than any other public figure of the eighteenth century, Tom Paine strikes our times like a trumpet blast from a distant world." So begins John Keane's magnificent and award-winning (the Fraunces Tavern Book Award) biography of one of democracy's greatest champions. Among friends and enemies alike, Paine earned a reputation as a notorious pamphleteer, one of the greatest political figures of his day, and the author of three best-selling books, Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason. Setting his compelling narrative against a vivid social backdrop of prerevolutionary America and the French Revolution, John Keane melds together the public and the shadowy private sides of Paine's life in a remarkable piece of scholarship. This is the definitive biography of a man whose life and work profoundly shaped the modern age. "Provide[s] an engaging perspective on England, America, and France in the tumultuous years of the late eighteenth century." -- Pauline Maier, The New York Times Book Review "It is hard to imagine this magnificent biography ever being superceded.... It is a stylish, splendidly erudite work." -- Terry Eagleton, The Guardian

Tom Paine: A Political Life, Used [Hardcover]

6. Biography of a Runaway Slave, Revised Edition [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. ...a powerful account of a vanished world...invaluable.-Newsweek "Its contribution to our understanding of Cuban history and national temperament is no less than its immense appeal as a human testament....All the fire and dash of the Cuban character, the refusal ever to cringe or to give up, take on flesh and meaning in the reminiscences of this stubborn veteran."-Times Literary Supplement Miguel Barnet lives in Havana, Cuba, where he was born in 1940. He is the originator of the tradition of "Testimonial" fiction in Latin American letters, and he remains the genre's acknowledged master.

Biography of a Runaway Slave, Used [Paperback]

7. The Gonne-Yeats Letters, 1893-1938, Used [Paperback]

Maud Gonne and William Butler Yeats met in early 1889, and he first proposed to her--unsuccessfully--two years later. Some of Yeats's greatest poems chronicle his long obsession with her, among them "A Woman Homer Sang," "Reconciliation," and "No Second Troy": What could have made her peaceful with a mind That nobleness made simple as a fire, With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind That is not natural in an age like this, Being high and solitary and most stern? Why, what could she have done, being what she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn? We tend to see Maud Gonne through his prism--a firebrand, a great beauty, above all a political fanatic who made him suffer like mad. These letters tell a more complex tale, since the majority are hers, most of Yeats's having been destroyed. What he portrayed as extremism instead becomes deep political involvement: her letters record an endless round of meetings, protests, and good works. In addition, the concern she again and again manifests for Yeats mitigates his cries of indifference; rather, Maud Gonne emerges as steady and heroic. Even as she was preparing to marry John MacBride, she took time out to console her longtime suitor in a characteristic run-on: "Friend of mine au revoir. I shall go over to Ireland in a couple of months, if you care to see me I shall be so glad & you will find I think that I am just the same woman you have always known, marriage won't change me I think at all...." The editors declare the original letter "very crumpled and creased as if carried in Yeats's pocket and taken out and read many times."

The Gonne-Yeats Letters, 1893-1938, Used [Paperback]

8. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence, Used [Paperback]

Some rebel groups abuse noncombatant populations, while others exhibit restraint. Insurgent leaders in some countries transform local structures of government, while others simply extract resources for their own benefit. In some contexts, groups kill their victims selectively, while in other environments violence appears indiscriminate, even random. This book presents a theory that accounts for the different strategies pursued by rebel groups in civil war, explaining why patterns of insurgent violence vary so much across conflicts. It does so by examining the membership, structure, and behavior of four insurgent movements in Uganda, Mozambique, and Peru. Drawing on interviews with nearly two hundred combatants and civilians who experienced violence firsthand, it shows that rebels' strategies depend in important ways on how difficult it is to launch a rebellion. The book thus demonstrates how characteristics of the environment in which rebellions emerge constrain rebel organization and shape the patterns of violence that civilians experience.

Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence, Used [Paperback]

9. Revolutionary Tides: The Art of the Political Poster, 1914-1989 [Paperback - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Public assemblies and multitudes in action are fundamental to our notion of political life. Through 120 posters-many never previously reproduced-the book examines the impact of large gatherings of people in politics and society concentrating on the turbulent years of the first half of the 20th century. The posters will be presented in a nearly year-long US exhibition, drawn from the massive collection of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and augmented by works from the Wolfsonian Museum, Florida International University, and the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. The exhibition catalog, published in conjunction with the Cantor Arts Center, explores the decisive importance of large gatherings of people and its correlative, the mass medium of poster art, and considers the complex nature of the portrayal of political crowds in the modern period.Schnapp's text frames the featured works within a broader history of the images of the crowd in Western art. The essay aims to sharpen the reader's perspective by creating a synthetic understanding of how emerging principles of popular sovereignty in politics shaped new images and myths of a new, collective sense of our humanity.

Revolutionary Tides: The Art of the Political Poster, 1914-1989, Used [Paperback]

10. You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Why most modern revolutions have ended in bloodshed and failure--and what lessons they hold for today's world of growing extremism Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? And what lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a world where political extremism is on the rise and rational reform based on moderation and compromise often seems impossible to achieve? 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. A powerful account of the unintended consequences of revolutionary change, You Say You Want a Revolution? is filled with critically important lessons for today's liberal democracies struggling with new forms of extremism.

You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences, Used [Hardcover]