History's Locomotives: Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World

by Martin Malia

Book Overview

This masterful comparative history traces the West's revolutionary tradition and its culmination in the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Unique in breadth and scope, History's Locomotives offers a new interpretation of the origins and history of socialism as well as the meanings of the Russian Revolution, the rise of the Soviet regime, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. History's Locomotives is the masterwork of an esteemed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300126905
• ISBN13: 9780300126907
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

From feudalism to socialism and communist utopia

A serious, informative, almost scholarly exposition of major revolutions from the 15th trough the 20th century. It examines events and ideas that transformed us from subjects of feudal lords to relatively free citizens of today's western democracies. I'd give it 5 stars for content but, not being a historian, I find the writing sometimes difficult to follow. A glossary of terms would have been very helpful (e.g. when mentioning Jacobins, a brief statement of their ideology, role or agenda would go a long way to make the book more readable.)

The End of Red October

Professor Malia, now deceased, wrote this very intelligent study of the links between various European revolutions, ending with the Soviet explosion in Russia. He argues that history has seen the last of these type of earth shaking upheavals against Old Regimes. His conclusion is that Marxism was a system doomed to failure from the start due to its unobtainable objective. Sadly, much blood has been shed proving this point. I especially enjoyed the book's crisp description of English politics of the 1600s. I now have a much better understanding of the string of events that led to that realm's Glorious Revolution. Martin Malia was a great historian. In his honor, this book deserves a wide readership of all those interested in the underpinnings of the modern political history of Europe and the United States.

The main western world revolutions

The word "revolution" implies radical change. In this book that term is the basis for the analysis of important social and political events in the western world since the middle age to the Russian 1917 revolution. In some way there is continuity in those events: the past is the basis of the future. In this book that link is an important part of the analysis.