Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, war, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk--the early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history. But it is not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What are these revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our fraught world?
In this major work, Fareed Zakaria masterfully investigates the eras and movements that have shaken norms while shaping the modern world. Three such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in the seventeenth-century Netherlands, a fascinating series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in the world--and created politics as we know it today. Next, the French Revolution, an explosive era that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us today. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Great Britain and the US to global dominance and created the modern world.
Alongside these paradigm-shifting historical events, Zakaria probes four present-day revolutions: globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics. For all their benefits, the globalization and technology revolutions have produced profound disruptions and pervasive anxiety and our identity. And increasingly, identity is the battlefield on which the twenty-first century's polarized politics are fought. All this is set against a geopolitical revolution as great as the one that catapulted the United States to world power in the late nineteenth century. Now we are entering a world in which the US is no longer the dominant power. As we find ourselves at the nexus of four seismic revolutions, we can easily imagine a dark future. But Zakaria proves that pessimism is premature. If we act wisely, the liberal international order can be revived and populism relegated to the ash heap of history.
As few public intellectuals can, Zakaria combines intellectual range, deep historical insight, and uncanny prescience to once again reframe and illuminate our turbulent present. His bold, compelling arguments make this book essential reading in our age of revolutions.
From acclaimed historian John Ferling, a major, global reappraisal of the Revolutionary War on its 250th Anniversary.
In April 1775, British troops marched to Lexington, where an armed group of Yankees awaited them. Despite an order to disperse, shots rang out. Militiamen were killed. The British continued marching, only to find even greater trouble in Concord and all the way down the road back to Boston. The Revolutionary War had begun. Shots Heard Round the World is a bold, comprehensive rendering of the world war that erupted out of America's battle for independence. Ferling highlights underestimated pivotal moments to reveal why the British should have put down the rebellion within a couple years of fighting. As European rivals France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic entered the fray, Britain's problems grew, but after seven long years, the war's outcome remained very much in doubt. Ferling assesses military and civilian leaders, the choices they faced, and the political, tactical, and strategic decisions they made as the war raged in North America, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, Asia, and on the high seas, affecting peoples and countries miles from American soil. Long after the soldiers laid down their arms, future generations have reckoned with the Revolution and its far-reaching consequences. Shots Heard Round the World is the definitive account of the war and its monumental legacy.In Defending Fort Stanwix, William L. Kidder tells the dramatic story of the fort that never surrendered and the crucial role it played in the American War for Independence. After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776-1777, British military leaders developed a bold plan to gain control of the Hudson River and divide New England from the rest of the colonies. Three armies would converge on Albany: one under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne moving south from Quebec, one under General William Howe moving north from New York City, and a third under Lieutenant Colonel Barrimore St. Leger cutting east from Lake Ontario along the Mohawk River. Fort Stanwix lay directly on the path of St. Leger's force, making it a key defensive position for the Continental Army. By delaying St. Leger's troops and forcing a retreat, the garrison's stand at Fort Stanwix contributed to Burgoyne's surrender at the Battles of Saratoga a month later, a major turning point in the course of the war.
Kidder offers an engaging account of life in and around the fort in the months leading up to the siege, detailing the lives of soldiers and their families, civilians, and the Haudenosaunee peoples with a focus on both the mundane aspects of military life and the courageous actions that earned distinction. Defending Fort Stanwix relates the stories of local men and women, both white and Indian, who helped with the fort's defense before, during, and after the siege and showcases an exciting, overlooked story of bravery and cooperation on New York's frontier during the American Revolution.
How Americans have weathered constitutional crises throughout our history
Since protestors ripped through the Capitol Building in 2021, the threat of constitutional crisis has loomed over our nation. The foundational tenets of American democracy seem to be endangered, and many citizens believe this danger is unprecedented in our history. But Americans have weathered many constitutional crises, often accompanied by the same violence and chaos experienced on January 6. However, these crises occurred on the state level. In Sedition, Marcus Alexander Gadson uncovers these episodes of civil unrest and examines how state governments handled them. Sedition takes readers through six instances of constitutional crisis: The Buckshot War, Dorr's Rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, the Brooks-Baxter War, a successful terrorist campaign to overthrow South Carolina's government during Reconstruction, and the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. He chronicles these turbulent periods of violent anti-government conflict on the state level, explaining what it was like to experience coup d'états, rival governments fighting in the streets, and disputed elections that gave way to violence. As he addresses constitutional breakdown, Gadson urges Americans to pay increased attention to the risk of constitutional instability in their home states. His sweeping historical analysis provides new insights on the fight to protect democracy today. As Americans mobilize to prevent future crises, Sedition reminds us that our constitutional order can fail, that democratic collapse is possible, and offers us advice on how to save our constitutional system.Revolutionary Warfare investigates how efforts to counter a revolution could also be revolutionary. The Algerian War fractured the French Empire, destroyed the legitimacy of colonial rule, and helped launch the Third Worldist movement for the liberation of the Global South. By tracing how French generals, officers, and civil officials sought to counter Algerian independence with their own project of radical social transformation, Terrence G. Peterson reveals that the conflict also helped to transform the nature of modern warfare.
The French war effort was never defined solely by repression. As Peterson details, it also sought to fashion new forms of surveillance and social control that could capture the loyalty of Algerians and transform Algerian society. Hygiene and medical aid efforts, youth sports and education programs, and psychological warfare campaigns all attempted to remake Algerian social structures and bind them more closely to the French state. In tracing the emergence of such programs, Peterson reframes the French war effort as a project of armed social reform that sought not to preserve colonial rule unchanged, but to revolutionize it in order to preserve it against the global challenges of decolonization.
Revolutionary Warfare demonstrates how French officers' efforts to transform warfare into an exercise in social engineering not only shaped how the Algerian War unfolded from its earliest months, but also helped to forge a paradigm of warfare that dominated strategic thinking during the Cold War and after: counterinsurgency.
ATP 3-18.1 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare (2019 Edition)
The official U.S. Army guide to understanding, planning, and executing unconventional warfare operations.
This comprehensive reprint of ATP 3-18.1 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare serves as the definitive resource for military professionals, historians, and anyone interested in modern conflict strategies. Prepared for publication by Conflict Research Group, this manual outlines the methods, principles, and frameworks that guide Special Forces in unconventional operations worldwide.
Unconventional warfare (UW), involves resistance movements and insurgencies coercing, disrupting, or overthrowing adversarial powers. This publication provides a clear and detailed breakdown of UW's core activities, including intelligence gathering, subversion, sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and the creation of underground resistance networks. It also introduces practical tools for understanding resistance dynamics and explores the operational phases of UW, from preparation and infiltration to transitioning and demobilization.
Highlights of this Edition:
Carefully structured to be both authoritative and practical, this manual addresses UW at the operational and tactical levels. While written primarily for Special Forces personnel, its clarity and depth make it a valuable reference for students of military strategy, defense professionals, and anyone seeking to understand the complexities of irregular warfare.
This 2019 edition remains a foundational text for unconventional warfare operations, offering timeless lessons that resonate in today's global security environment.
An essential text for understanding resistance dynamics and the critical role of Special Forces in unconventional warfare.
By: Ruth Webb O'Dell, Pub. 1951, Reprinted 2012, 485 pages, Hard Cover, New Index, ISBN #0-89308-276-7.
Cocke county was formed in 1797 and BURNED in 1878 making this book a MUST for those working in Cocke county and East Tennessee. This book contains vast amounts of historical and genealogical source material from early school superintendents, churches, postmasters, register of Deeds, sheriffs, tax assessors, Indian names, Indian Marriages, lists of soldiers in the Confederacy, Federal soldiers in the Civil War, World War I & II, militia 1808-1810, and much more. Detailed genealogies and biographical sketches are given on the following families: Allen, Ball, Boydston, Burnett, Christian, Clark, Dawson, Denton, Driskill, Faubion, Fine, Gillett, Gilland, Gorman, Gouchenour, Hopkins, Huff, Inman, Jobe, Jones, Lee, Lemings, Lillard, mcKay, McNabb, Mims, Morell, O'Dell, O'Neil, Parrott, Palmer, Peck, Roadman, Sanduskey, Smith, Stanberry, Stokely, Susong, Whitson, Wood, and many others.
The American Revolution Unveiled: A Journey from Rebellion to Independence
Embark on a riveting journey through the tumultuous era that birthed a nation-The American Revolution. This book is more than just a history; it's an exploration into the heart and soul of early America, through battlefields, diplomatic strife, and the forging of a new identity. Here's what you'll uncover:
Why This Book is Essential:
For Whom is This Book:
Known to many as The Engineer, Amílcar Cabral was dedicated to putting study to action, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to being with and learning from the people. From organizing in his youth, to examining the struggles in Vietnam and writing on culture, these experiences armed Cabral with the skills and vision necessary to build up the revolutionary party that would free Guinea and Cabo Verde. Standing at the helm of African resistance to Portuguese colonialism, his life sadly cut short by colonial forces, Cabral leaves behind a legacy of political clarity and determination, offering us all a trove of experiences and a model of commitment to the liberation of working people.
Mário de Andrade-a founding member of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, as well as Cabral's long-time friend and comrade-follows the arc of Cabral's political thought as it transforms over the course of his life. Presented in its first ever English translation, Amílcar Cabral: A Political Life in Motion is a portrait of a keen and agile leader who knew that to lead the people was to know them.
A new look at a contentious period in the history of the Atlantic world
Within just a half century, the American, French, Haitian, and Spanish American revolutions transformed the Atlantic world. This book is the first to analyze these events through a comparative lens, revealing several central themes in the field of Atlantic history. From the murky position of the European empire between the Old and New Worlds to slavery and diaspora, Wim Klooster offers insights into the forces behind the many conflicts in the Atlantic world in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Digging deeply into the structural causes and oppressive environments in which these revolutions occurred, Klooster debunks the popular myth that the people rebelled against a small ruling elite, arguing instead that the revolutions were civil wars in which all classes fought on both sides. The book reveals the extent to which mechanisms of popular mobilization were visible in the revolutions. For example, although Blacks and Indians often played an important role in the success of the revolutions, they were never compensated once new regimes rose to power. Nor was democracy a goal or product of these revolutions, which usually spawned authoritarian polities. The new edition covers the latest historiographical trends in the study of the Atlantic world, including new research regarding the role of privateers. Drawing on fresh research - such as primary documents and extant secondary literature - Klooster ultimately concludes that the Enlightenment was the ideological inspiration for the Age of Revolutions, although not its cause.