Revolutions: A New History

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Revolutions is a sparkling account of political upheaval and the power of history. We think of revolutions as events, like the Fall of the Bastille or the Storming of the Winter Palace. In reality they take decades to burn out, if they ever do. Donald Sassoon engagingly reappraises some of the most celebrated. The English Civil War that killed a king and inaugurated parliamentary rule. The American War of Independence that ejected the British but ignored slavery. The French Revolution that gave us the Rights of Man and years of instability. The national revolutions that unified Italy and Germany. The Russian and Chinese Revolutions that changed the twentieth century. He adroitly compares these landmarks to the rebellions, coups and tumults that time forgot.

It is a history rich in irony. How Yankee Doodle Dandy was first sung by English troopers to make fun of dishevelled American colonials. How revolution became a word de jour, when no one has convincingly defined what it means. As Sassoon shows in this tour de force account, they usually catch revolutionaries themselves by surprise and the consequences of them are difficult to fathom. Revolutions will change the way you think about the transformative moments in history, both big and small.

Unique and encyclopaedica monument to streetwise and cosmopolitan scholarship
Guardian (for The Culture of the Europeans)

Sometimes playful, sometimes caustic, but always to the point. The doyen of comparative historians
Ferdinand Mount, Times Literary Supplement (for The Anxious Triumph)

Reviews

A big book on a big idea. Sassoon is able to work on a grand scale, and he's not afraid to take big swings with his analysis. He also has an excellent eye for sparkling anecdotes and character sketches * Lit Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2025 *

Author Bio

Donald Sassoon is the author of the best-selling Mona Lisa: The History of the Worlds Most Famous Painting as well as Morbid Symptoms, The Anxious Triumph, The Culture of the Europeans and One Hundred Years of Socialism, all widely translated. He is Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London.