In this 25th anniversary edition of the classic that demonstrated the role of population changes-such as rising youth cohorts, urbanization, shifting elite mobility--as causal factors of revolutions and rebellions, Jack A. Goldstone reflects on the history of revolutions in the last twenty-five years, from the Philippines and other color revolutions to the Arab Uprisings and the rise of the Islamic State. The new concluding chapter updates his major theory and looks to the future of revolutions in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Chronologies

Preface (New)

Introduction (New)

1. The Central Problem: How to Explain the Periodic Waves of State Breakdown in the Early Modern World

2. State Breakdown in Early Modern Europe: The English Revolution

3. State Breakdown in Early Modern Europe: The French Revolution

4. State Breakdown in Early Modern Asia: The Ottoman Crisis and the Ming-Qing Transition

5. Ideology, Cultural Frameworks, Revolutionary Struggles, and State Reconstruction

6. From Past to Present (New)

Appendix

Bibliography

Index

Jack A. Goldstone is Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Professor of Public Policy and Eminent Scholar at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He has previously taught at Northwestern University, the University of California, and the California Institute of Technology.