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

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.)

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 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.