This book reinterprets the last five centuries of European history, a period characterised by war, revolt and contention, by the rise and struggles of states and empires, and by urbanization, enrichment and industrialization. His focus is on revolutions, their origins in ambition and discontent, and the variability of their outcomes over time and according to place, politics and culture. He seeks an understanding of revolutionary processes grounded in the contingencies of circumstance, and to show the pace of great revolutions in the long-term history of Europe and the world at large.

Charles Tilly is University Distinguished Professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he directs the Center fro Studies of Social Change. His work focuses on social change and collective action, especially in Western Europe since 1500. His recent books include Coercion, Capital, and European States (Blackwell, 1989; second paperback edition, 1992), Cities and the Rise of States in Europe, AD 100-1800 (1994) and Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834 (1995). He is currently researching work and labour markets, the origins of durable inequality, and the emergence of mass national politics in France and Britain.