This book looks at long-term consequences of social movements in times of transition on the quality of democracy in ensuing regimes. It will be useful to students in courses on political sociology, comparative politics, social movements, democratic theory, democratization, and revolution.

The dangers of political violence and the possibilities of non-violence were the central themes of three lives which changed the twentieth century—Leo Tolstoy, writer and aristocrat who turned against his class, Mohandas Gandhi who corresponded with Tolstoy and considered him the most important person of the time, and Nelson Mandela, prisoner and statesman, who read War and Peace on Robben Island and who, despite having led a campaign of sabotage, saw himself as a successor to Gandhi. Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Mandela tried to create transformed societies to replace the dying forms of colony and empire. They found the inequalities of Russia, India, and South Africa intolerable yet they questioned the wisdom of seizing the power of the state, creating new kinds of political organisation and imagination to replace the old promises of revolution. Their views, along with their ways of leading others, are closely connected, from their insistence on working with their own hands and reforming their individual selves to their acceptance of death. On three continents, in a century of mass mobilization and conflict, they promoted strains of nationalism devoid of antagonism, prepared to take part in a general peace. Looking at Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Mandela in sequence, taking into account their letters and conversations as well as the institutions they created or subverted, placing at the centre their treatment of the primal fantasy of political violence, this volume reveals a vital radical tradition which stands outside the conventional categories of twentieth-century history and politics.

The book is about the revival of China in the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. It has eight parts: (1) The civil revolution in China, (2) The countryside bases, (3) The Long Match of the Red Army, (4) The Anti Japanese War, (5) Decisive civil battles before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, (6) The Mao Era before the Great Cultural Revolution, (7) The Great Cultural Revolution, and (8) The Reform and opening up. This version of the book is without pictures.

We never know how events affect our lives. In Sea Birds, events that seem to be totally unrelated gradually draw several lives together in the tropical paradise of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sea Birds describes in a series of stories how the personal relationships of the people involved develop. Even in paradise, there is crime, greed, love, hate, and passion leading to an ultimate new beginning Anjanette was abandoned as a child of mixed heritage. She now, as an adult, operates the Arawak Eco-Camp with the goal of preserving the Caribbean land where it is located and providing educational opportunities for those interested in learning about the Virgin Islands land and the sea around them. Unfortunately, her land is a magnet for people more interested in exploiting the islands than in preserving them. Sea Birds describes the struggles of Anjanette and her friends to save the Eco-Camp from development as a resort hotel and casino. During this time, she learns much about her family, her husband, and her friends, culminating with an unexpected ending. Comments from readers: I completed the book with tears of happiness streaming down my face. A frequent visitor to the Virgin Islands. I could vividly paint the characters as I went along. A serious book collector.