No Other Way Out provides a powerful explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the ‘state-centered’ tradition of Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions and Jack Goldstone’s Revolutions and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the ‘only way out’, to use Trotsky’s formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.
• Compares more than a dozen countries on three continents • Provides a parsimonious explanation for major world events • A ‘state-centered’ analysis of more recent revolutions
Contents
Figures, tables and maps; Abbreviations and acronyms; Preface and acknowledgments; Part I. Introduction: 1. Comparing revolutionary movements; 2. The state-centered perspective on revolutions: strengths and limitations; Part II. Southeast Asia: Chronology for Southeast Asia; 3. The formation of revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia; 4. The only domino: the Vietnamese revolution in comparative perspective; Part III. Central America: Chronology for Central America; 5. The formation of revolutionary movements in Central America; 6. Not-so-inevitable revolutions: the political trajectory of revolutionary movements in Central America; Part IV. Further Comparisons and Theoretical Elaborations: 7. Between success and failure: persistent insurgencies; Chronology for Eastern Europe; 8. ‘Refolution’ and rebellion in Eastern Europe, 1989; 9. Conclusion: generalizations and prognostication; Annotated bibliography; Index.
Review
‘Jeff Goodwin’s No Other Way Out is an outstanding contribution to the sociology of revolutions. It goes beyond the work of his mentor, Theda Skocpol, and will have a profound impact on the literature for years to come.’ Misagh Parsa, Dartmouth College (Electronic newsletter of the ECPR-SG on Extremism and Democracy)
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