Daniel Chirot

"This book poses the question of why revolutions--from the French Revolution through the Russian and more recent revolutions--tend to produce tragic outcomes. As the author puts it: 'I have become intrigued with the idea of writing a short book on why so many revolutions turn into bloody catastrophes. Though a huge amount has obviously been written about revolutions, I think a good short review of why they so often disappoint so badly could find a good audience. Of course the planned book would not please those with different views. I want to insist on the contingent nature of what happened rather than seeing revolutions in a Marxist way as necessary and inevitable steps toward world historical progress. I also believe that key individuals make a big difference, so the purely structural analyses that predominate in sociology and political science lack an important element. Then, too, the age of revolutions is far from over, and while I don't really think that history repeats itself, there are recurrent patterns to watch out for.' Chirot proceeds by exploring the combination of extremism and incompetence that characterize most revolutionary movements, the effects of counter-revolutionary forces in complications post-revolutionary regimes, the often tyrannical application of idealistic norms on societies experiencing revolutionary change, and the corruption and oppression that often characterize post-revolutionary regimes. He plans to end the book with a chapter on what can be learned from his study with respect to future revolutionary movement"--

Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Clark McCauley

The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder

Why Not Kill Them All?

Scott L. Montgomery

Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World

Shape of the New

How four revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment shaped today's world This panoramic book tells the story of how revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment about freedom, equality, evolution, and democracy have reverberated through modern history and shaped the world as we know it today. A testament to the enduring power of ideas, The Shape of the New offers unforgettable portraits of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx—heirs of the Enlightenment who embodied its highest ideals about progress—and shows how their thoughts, over time and in the hands of their followers and opponents, transformed the very nature of our beliefs, institutions, economies, and politics. Yet these ideas also hold contradictions. They have been used in the service of brutal systems such as slavery and colonialism, been appropriated and twisted by monsters like Stalin and Hitler, and provoked reactions against the Enlightenment's legacy by Islamic Salafists and the Christian Religious Right. The Shape of the New argues that it is impossible to understand the ideological and political conflicts of our own time without familiarizing ourselves with the history and internal tensions of these world-changing ideas. With passion and conviction, it exhorts us to recognize the central importance of these ideas as historical forces and pillars of the Western humanistic tradition. It makes the case that to read the works of the great thinkers is to gain invaluable insights into the ideas that have shaped how we think and what we believe.

The Shape of the New

Along with its much vaunted progress in scientific and economic realms, our century has witnessed the rise of the most brutal and oppressive regimes in the history of mankind. Even with the collapse of Marxism, current references to “ethnic cleansing” remind us that tyranny persists in our own age and shows no sign of abating. Daniel Chirot offers an important and timely study of modern tyrants, both revealing the forces which allow them to come to power and helping us to predict where they may arise in the future. Tyrannical rule typically begins in an economically depressed and unstable society with no real tradition of democratic government. Under such circumstances, a self-pitying nationalism often arises along with a widespread popular perception among the citizenry that grave injustices have been committed against them. When a charismatic leader is able to exploit this situation, he may sanction unspeakable atrocities while claiming to uphold cherished national myths. Chriot analyzes the careers and characters of notorious dictators such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Saddam, as well as lesser known tyrants such as Kim II Sung of North Korea, Ne Win of Burma, Argentina’s Peron, the Dominican Republic’s Trujillo, Pol Pot, Duvalier, and others. He demonstrates how they can survive the rise and fall of particular ideologies and reveals the frightening new marriages between nationalism and a host of local concerns. The lesson drawn is stark and disturbing: the age of modern tyranny is upon us, and unlikely to fade soon.

Modern Tyrants

Along with its much vaunted progress in scientific and economic realms, the twentieth century has witnessed the rise of the most brutal and oppressive regimes in the history of humankind. Even with the collapse of Marxism, current instances of "ethnic cleansing" remind us that tyranny persists in our own age and shows no sign of abating. Daniel Chirot offers an important and timely study of modern tyrants, both revealing the forces that allow them to come to power and helping us to predict where they may arise in the future.

The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age

Gi-Wook Shin

Daniel Sneider

The legacy of the Second World War has been, like the war itself, an international phenomenon. In both Europe and Asia, common questions of criminality, guilt, and collaboration have intersected with history and politics on the local level to shape the way that wartime experience has been memorialized, reinterpreted, and used. By directly comparing European and Asian legacies, Confronting Memories of World War II, provides unique insight into the way that World War II continues to influence contemporary attitudes and politics on a global scale. The collection brings together experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to explore the often overlooked commonalities between European and Asian handling of memories and reflections about guilt. These commonalities suggest new understandings of the war's legacy and the continuing impact of historical trauma.

European and Asian Legacies

Confronting Memories of World War II

Martin E. P. Seligman

Examines international cases to understand what causes a society's ethnic conflicts to escalate or de-escalate. This book contains examinations of the political and historical antecedents to conflict around the world, combining them with psychological analyses of group identity and intergroup conflict. In examining the escalation of ethnic conflict, the chapters highlight the critical role of group identification, stressing how group identification becomes enmeshed with threatened economic resources, violent political subcultures, and media manipulation of collective fear.

Causes, Consequences, and Possible Solutions

Ethnopolitical Warfare

Social Change in a Peripheral Society: The Creation of a Balkan Colony focuses on the nature of social change in peripheral societies, societies on the margins of the capitalist European world that have been absorbed by the dynamic industrial economies and turned into “colonial or “neocolonial societies. This book emphasizes the theory of an interdependent world-system dominated by core societies that subject, by direct or indirect means, peripheral societies. Studies on several peripheral societies, primarily those in the contemporary “third world , that are in the former colonies of Europe in Latin America, Asia, and Africa are also described. This text likewise explains the tremendous vitality of European capitalism by deliberating the difference between Ottoman and capitalist exploitation of Romania. This publication is beneficial to historians, economists, and anthropologists interested in the social change in peripheral society.

The Creation of a Balkan Colony

Social Change in a Peripheral Society

Genocide, mass murder, massacres. The words themselves are chilling, evoking images of the slaughter of countless innocents. What dark impulses lurk in our minds that even today can justify the eradication of thousands and even millions of unarmed human beings caught in the crossfire of political, cultural, or ethnic hostilities? This question lies at the heart of Why Not Kill Them All? Cowritten by historical sociologist Daniel Chirot and psychologist Clark McCauley, the book goes beyond exploring the motives that have provided the psychological underpinnings for genocidal killings. It offers a historical and comparative context that adds up to a causal taxonomy of genocidal events. Rather than suggesting that such horrors are the product of abnormal or criminal minds, the authors emphasize the normality of these horrors: killing by category has occurred on every continent and in every century. But genocide is much less common than the imbalance of power that makes it possible. Throughout history human societies have developed techniques aimed at limiting intergroup violence. Incorporating ethnographic, historical, and current political evidence, this book examines the mechanisms of constraint that human societies have employed to temper partisan passions and reduce carnage. Might an understanding of these mechanisms lead the world of the twenty-first century away from mass murder? Why Not Kill Them All? makes clear that there are no simple solutions, but that progress is most likely to be made through a combination of international pressures, new institutions and laws, and education. If genocide is to become a grisly relic of the past, we must fully comprehend the complex history of violent conflict and the struggle between hatred and tolerance that is waged in the human heart. In a new preface, the authors discuss recent mass violence and reaffirm the importance of education and understanding in the prevention of future genocides.

An exploration of how societies have changed over the past five thousand years. The discussion focuses on the idea that industrial societies, despite their great success, have created a new set of recurring and unsolved problems which will serve as a major impetus for further social change.

How Societies Change

This panoramic book tells the story of how revolutionary ideas from the Enlightenment about freedom, equality, evolution, and democracy have reverberated through modern history and shaped the world as we know it today. A testament to the enduring power of ideas, The Shape of the New offers unforgettable portraits of Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx—heirs of the Enlightenment who embodied its highest ideals about progress—and shows how their thoughts, over time and in the hands of their followers and opponents, transformed the very nature of our beliefs, institutions, economies, and politics. Yet these ideas also hold contradictions. They have been used in the service of brutal systems such as slavery and colonialism, been appropriated and twisted by monsters like Stalin and Hitler, and provoked reactions against the Enlightenment's legacy by Islamic Salafists and the Christian Religious Right. The Shape of the New argues that it is impossible to understand the ideological and political conflicts of our own time without familiarizing ourselves with the history and internal tensions of these world-changing ideas. With passion and conviction, it exhorts us to recognize the central importance of these ideas as historical forces and pillars of the Western humanistic tradition. It makes the case that to read the works of the great thinkers is to gain invaluable insights into the ideas that have shaped how we think and what we believe.

Daniel Chirot

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