'Revolutions and History combines the virtues of two very different kinds of study. It is a lucid, concise and reliable guide through the forest of literature on the subject: an ideal introduction for students. It is also a wide-ranging essay full of original ideas on topics as diverse as world-system theory and the effects of what the author describes as 'the revolutionary narrative'. I don't know of any book which so skilfully combines history with theory in a study of revolution.' Peter Burke, Emmanuel College, Cambridge '[Covers] the topic from its beginnings in modern European history up to the present. Parker has more in mind than a mere typology. He wishes also to give a structural-analytic explanation of revolutions, along with a hermeneutically inflected history of their appearance over time.' American Historical Review