State structures, international forces, and class relations: Theda Skocpol shows how all three combine to explain the origins and accomplishments of social-revolutionary transformations. Social revolutions have been rare but undeniably of enormous importance in modern world history. States and Social Revolutions provides a new frame of reference for analyzing the causes, the conflicts, and the outcomes of such revolutions. It develops a rigorous, comparative historical analysis of three major cases: the French Revolution of 1787 through the early 1800s, the Russian Revolution of 1917 through the 1930s, and the Chinese Revolution of 1911 through the 1960s. Believing that existing theories of revolution, both Marxist and non-Marxist, are inadequate to explain the actual historical patterns of revolutions, Skocpol urges us to adopt fresh perspectives. Above all, she maintains that states conceived as administrative and coercive organizations potentially autonomous from class controls and interests must be made central to explanations of revolutions.

Theda Skocpol shows how state structures, international forces, and class relations combine to explain the origins and accomplishments of social-revolutionary transformations. Believing that existing theories of revolution, both Marxist and non-Marxist, are inadequate to explain the actual historical patterns of revolutions, Skocpol urges the reader to adopt fresh perspectives.

List of tables and maps; Preface; Introduction; 1. Explaining social revolutions: alternatives to existing theories; Part I. Causes of Social Revolutions in France, Russia and China: 2. Old-regime states in crisis; 3. Agrarian structures and peasant insurrections; Part II. Outcomes of Social Revolutions in France, Russia and China: 4. What changed and how: a focus on state building; 5. The birth of a 'modern state edifice' in France; 6. The emergence of a dictatorial party-state in Russia; 7. The rise of a mass-mobilizing party-state in China; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.