Taking Power
On the Origins of Third World Revolutions

This book analyzes the causes behind some three dozen revolutions in the Third World between 1910 and the present.

John Foran (Author)

9780521620093, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 November 2005

410 pages, 2 b/w illus. 12 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.769 kg

'John Foran's deftly written, persuasively argued, theoretically sophisticated, and substantively rich text serves as a delightful compendium of the very best and latest thinking about matters revolutionary.' Eric Selbin, Chair of the Political Science Department, Southwestern University

Taking Power analyzes the causes behind some three dozen revolutions in the Third World between 1910 and the present. It advances a theory that seeks to integrate the political, economic, and cultural factors that brought these revolutions about, and links structural theorizing with original ideas on culture and agency. It attempts to explain why so few revolutions have succeeded, while so many have failed. The book is divided into chapters that treat particular sets of revolutions including the great social revolutions of Mexico 1910, China 1949, Cuba 1959, Iran 1979, and Nicaragua 1979, the anticolonial revolutions in Algeria, Vietnam, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe from the 1940s to the 1970s, and the failed revolutionary attempts in El Salvador, Peru, and elsewhere. It closes with speculation about the future of revolutions in an age of globalization, with special attention to Chiapas, the post-September 11 world, and the global justice movement.

Introduction
Part I. Perspectives: 1. Theorizing revolutions
Part II. Revolutionary Success: 2. The great social revolutions
3. The closest cousins: the great anti-colonial revolutions
Part III. Revolutionary Failure: 4. The greatest tragedies: reversed revolutions
5. The great contrasts: attempts, political revolutions, and non-attempts
Part IV. Conclusions: 6. The past and future of revolutions.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Sociology & anthropology [JH], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], General & world history [HBG]