I am an academic economist, but economics is not only about interest rates and public funding of healthcare. It asks basic questions about individual choices and how they impact economic and political institutions. By taking an empirical perspective on historical episodes of revolts and revolutions, economic analysis can inform us about what enables the establishment and consolidation of democracy. This is obviously of utmost importance at a time when populist politicians on both sides of the political spectrum use rhetoric that may ultimately trigger democratic backsliding.
Acemoglu and Robinson's book is (one of) the best theoretical monograph(s) in political economy.
I like how the book starts from a simple framework and then develops a series of models that emphasize how conflict and the potential for violent confrontation are essential factors for democratization.
Moreover, those models are always presented in perspective with an historical narrative that emphasizes why democracy is able to persist or not.
I like how Tilly's book emphasizes how democracy was often the outcome of popular protest.
Its analysis is careful enough to note that such protest could be peaceful or violent, as well as spontaneous or planned. As such, this book does not provide sweeping generalizations for the development of democratic institutions, and sometimes for their demise.
And its last chapter provides food for thought regarding democratization outside of Europe.
Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000, first published in 2004, is an analysis of the relationship between democratization and contentious politics that builds upon the model set forth in the pathbreaking book, Dynamics of Contention. Using a sustained comparison of French and British histories since 1650 or so as a springboard for more general comparison within Europe Contention and Democracy goes on to demonstrate that democratization occurred as result of struggles during which (as in 19th century Britain and France) few, if any, of the participants were self-consciously trying to create democratic institutions. Consequently, circumstances for democratization vary from era…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This is a classic book dealing with the Terror during the 1789 French Revolution.
I like the way it shows how the French revolutionaries quickly resorted to violence. They talked about democracy, equality, and liberty but were quick to deny them to their “enemies,” chief among them other revolutionaries who were too “moderate” or too “extreme.”
In so doing, I like how the book shows how the French revolutionaries established a regime with what a modern observer would recognize as features of a totalitarian dictatorship.
The Reign of Terror continues to fascinate scholars as one of the bloodiest periods in French history, when the Committee of Public Safety strove to defend the first Republic from its many enemies, creating a climate of fear and suspicion in revolutionary France. R. R. Palmer's fascinating narrative follows the Committee's deputies individually and collectively, recounting and assessing their tumultuous struggles in Paris and their repressive missions in the provinces. A foreword by Isser Woloch explains why this book remains an enduring classic in French revolutionary studies.
This book provided me with a fresh perspective on the 1789 Revolution in France.
I like its convincing analysis that the French Revolution was not a movement that directly caused or resulted from the Industrial Revolution.
Instead, it argues that it was a political revolution with “anti-capitalist” consequences: it solidified the agricultural pattern of small landowners, thereby explaining why France had remained relatively more agricultural than England or Germany by the turn of the twentieth century.
The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution
Alfred Cobban's The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution is one of the acknowledged classics of post-war historiography. This 'revisionist' analysis of the French Revolution caused a furore on first publication in 1964, challenging as it did established orthodoxies during the crucial period of the Cold War. Cobban saw the French Revolution as central to the 'grand narrative of modern history', but provided a salutary corrective to many celebrated social explanations, determinist and otherwise, of its origins and development. A generation later this concise but powerful intervention was reissued in this 1999 edition with an introduction by Gwynne Lewis, providing…
This is the Inspiring true story of a young girl surviving Mengele’s hell. This is an incisive, harrowing, and touching memoir of Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister Miriam, who are sent to Auschwitz only to be torn from their parents and given to Josef Mengele, "The Angel of…
I like how this book brings 17th-century England alive.
It emphasizes how different England was from the country which we know today, notably by showing how religious outlooks shaped all aspects of life, from holiday celebrations to politics. At the same time, it also dwells on the economic and political factors which triggered the English Civil War in the 1640s.
Indeed, by ending its narrative with the 1688 Glorious Revolution and William of Orange's coming to power, it also provides the background for England’s international dominance in the 18th century.
A WATERSTONES, TELEGRAPH, ECONOMIST AND NEW YORKER BOOK OF THE YEAR A major new history of England's turbulent seventeenth century and how it marked the birth of a new world
'This is a wonderful book, exhaustively researched, vigorously argued and teeming with the furious joy of seventeenth-century life' The Times
'A brilliant, bloody account of England's most dramatic century . . . Thrilling' Telegraph
The seventeenth century began as the English suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, the country suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under…
The Great Reform Act of 1832 was a pivotal moment in British political development that opened the door to democratic reform, entailing a slow and gradual journey to universal suffrage, secret ballot, and competitive elections. But it could have failed.
Through a detailed analysis of the Great Reform Act of 1832, the book, co-authored with Toke S. Aidt, articulates a new process-based perspective on the study of democratization. It uses microdata generated by the reform to test competing theories of democratization. By viewing democratic reform as a process rather than as a single event, it also provides more nuanced answers to what caused the West to extend the franchise. Further, it presents new insights into the underlying forces of democratisation processes.
Part travelogue, part buddy story, part memoir, The Twenty is a journey across a rugged island of stunning beauty, little known outside Europe.
Marianne Bohr and her husband, about to turn sixty, are restless for adventure. They decide on an extended, desolate trek across the French island of Corsica —…
