This book will have wide appeal to progressive students and scholars across disciplines, as it is a provocative and thoroughly researched study by a prize-winning scholar. We will promote the book in appropriate web and print media, as well as at academic and activist conferences and events.
Neil Davidson teaches at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow where he is the Vice-President of the local University and College Union branch. He is the author of The Origins of Scottish Nationhood (2000), Discovering the Scottish Revolution (2003), for which he was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize, and co-edited Alasdair MacIntyre’s Engagement With Marxism (2008) and Neoliberal Scotland (2010). Davidson is on the Editorial Board of International Socialism.
“I was frankly poleaxed by this magnificent book. Davidson resets
the entire debate on the character of revolutions: bourgeois,
democratic, and socialist. He’s sending me, at least, back to the
library.” —MIKE DAVIS, author, Planet of Slums
"Davidson's book is one of immense and impressive erudition. His
knowledge of the history of Marxist theory and historiography is as
detailed as it is comprehensive, and must be well-nigh unrivalled.
The endless, complex debates that characterize the Marxist
tradition are distilled with clarity and illumination." —JEREMY
JENNINGS, Times Literary Supplement
"Epic in scale, How Revolutionary? is by any standards a
significant achievement. Its intellectual scope is commendably
wide-ranging; no one else has put together such a broad field of
references on this subject, or conjoined such widely dispersed
historical and theoretical arguments. In addition, Davidson
discusses virtually every key issue in Marxist political sociology,
sweeping from the tributary mode to the nation-state, the
differentiation of the peasantry to the revolution en
permanence."
—New Left Review
" What should our conception of a bourgeois revolution be, if it is
to enlighten rather than to mislead ? Neil Davidson’s instructive
and provocative answer is given through a history both of a set of
concepts and of those social settings in which they found
application.His book is an impressive contribution both to the
history of ideas and to political philosophy.” —ALASDAIR MACINTYRE,
author, After Virtue
"This is, quite simply, the finest book of its kind." —Tony
McKenna, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books
“Neil Davidson wends his way through the jagged terrain of a wide
range of Marxist writings and debates to distill their lessons in
what is unquestionably the most thorough discussion of the subject
to date. If the paradox at the heart of the bourgeois revolutions
was that the emergence of the modern bourgeois state had little to
do with the agency of the bourgeoisie, then Davidson’s study is by
far the most nuanced and illuminating discussion of this complex
fact.A brilliant and fascinating book, wide-ranging and lucidly
written.” —JAIRUS BANAJI, author, Theory as History
"There are books which are of such kind that upon reading them, one
immediately knows one is dealing with a future classic. Such a book
is Neil Davidson’s How Revolutionary Were The Bourgeois
Revolutions?"—Matthijs Krul
“[This] is a monumental work. Neil Davidson has given us what is
easily the most comprehensive account yet of the ‘life and times’
of the concept of ‘bourgeois revolution.’ . . . This would have
been enough. However, Davidson has also provided us with a refined
set of theoretical tools for understanding the often complex
interactions between political revolutions which overturn state
institutions and social revolutions which involve a more
thoroughgoing transformation of social relations.”
—COLIN MOOERS, author, The Making of Bourgeois Europe
"This magisterial book is destined to be a key reference point in
future debates on not only the transition from feudalism to
capitalism, but the meaning of socialism in the 21st century.
Davidson interweaves a detailed intellectual history of theories of
revolution with a vivid retelling of a multitude of transformative
social struggles."
—TAD TIETZE, Green Left Weekly
"This is a book in the grand style...In addressing the question set
by his title, Neil Davidson effortlessly displays analytical
intelligence and erudition rare among historians of any persuasion.
And the reader put off by the sheer size of the book will be
reassured by Neil’s easy, fluent style, plentifully interlarded
with humour. If there were any doubts about Neil’s calibre as a
Marxist historian after his two books on Scottish history (which
looms large in this work as well—no one could come away from it
without knowing it was written by a Scot), and his numerous
articles, these have now been removed." —ALEX CALLINICOS,
International Socialism
I was frankly poleaxed by this magnificent book. Davidson resets
the entire debate on the character of revolutions: bourgeois,
democratic, and socialist. He’s sending me, at least, back to the
library.” MIKE DAVIS, author, Planet of Slums
"Davidson's book is one of immense and impressive erudition. His
knowledge of the history of Marxist theory and historiography is as
detailed as it is comprehensive, and must be well-nigh unrivalled.
The endless, complex debates that characterize the Marxist
tradition are distilled with clarity and illumination." JEREMY
JENNINGS, Times Literary Supplement
"Epic in scale, How Revolutionary? is by any standards a
significant achievement. Its intellectual scope is commendably
wide-ranging; no one else has put together such a broad field of
references on this subject, or conjoined such widely dispersed
historical and theoretical arguments. In addition, Davidson
discusses virtually every key issue in Marxist political sociology,
sweeping from the tributary mode to the nation-state, the
differentiation of the peasantry to the revolution en
permanence."
New Left Review
" What should our conception of a bourgeois revolution be, if it is
to enlighten rather than to mislead ? Neil Davidson’s instructive
and provocative answer is given through a history both of a set of
concepts and of those social settings in which they found
application.His book is an impressive contribution both to the
history of ideas and to political philosophy.” ALASDAIR MACINTYRE,
author, After Virtue
"This is, quite simply, the finest book of its kind." Tony
McKenna, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books
Neil Davidson wends his way through the jagged terrain of a wide
range of Marxist writings and debates to distill their lessons in
what is unquestionably the most thorough discussion of the subject
to date. If the paradox at the heart of the bourgeois revolutions
was that the emergence of the modern bourgeois state had little to
do with the agency of the bourgeoisie, then Davidson’s study is by
far the most nuanced and illuminating discussion of this complex
fact.A brilliant and fascinating book, wide-ranging and lucidly
written.” JAIRUS BANAJI, author, Theory as History
"There are books which are of such kind that upon reading them, one
immediately knows one is dealing with a future classic. Such a book
is Neil Davidson’s How Revolutionary Were The Bourgeois
Revolutions?"Matthijs Krul
[This] is a monumental work. Neil Davidson has given us what is
easily the most comprehensive account yet of the life and times’
of the concept of bourgeois revolution.’ . . . This would have
been enough. However, Davidson has also provided us with a refined
set of theoretical tools for understanding the often complex
interactions between political revolutions which overturn state
institutions and social revolutions which involve a more
thoroughgoing transformation of social relations.”
COLIN MOOERS, author, The Making of Bourgeois Europe
"This magisterial book is destined to be a key reference point in
future debates on not only the transition from feudalism to
capitalism, but the meaning of socialism in the 21st century.
Davidson interweaves a detailed intellectual history of theories of
revolution with a vivid retelling of a multitude of transformative
social struggles."
TAD TIETZE, Green Left Weekly
"This is a book in the grand style...In addressing the question set
by his title, Neil Davidson effortlessly displays analytical
intelligence and erudition rare among historians of any persuasion.
And the reader put off by the sheer size of the book will be
reassured by Neil’s easy, fluent style, plentifully interlarded
with humour. If there were any doubts about Neil’s calibre as a
Marxist historian after his two books on Scottish history (which
looms large in this work as wellno one could come away from it
without knowing it was written by a Scot), and his numerous
articles, these have now been removed." ALEX CALLINICOS,
International Socialism
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