Revolutionary reign of terror

The Revolutionary Reign of Terror is an up-to-date study of the use of violence and the role played by ideology in the building of the new revolutionary state.

Rosemary O'Kane demonstrates how the study of revolutionary reigns of terror provides a means to an understanding both of the nature of revolutionary governments and the outcomes of revolutions. By a close comparison of revolutions and the ideologies which prompt them - including the examples of France, Russia, China, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Cambodia, England and America - the special significance of civil war is highlighted and an important distinction made between revolutionary governments brought to power through guerrilla warfare and those faced by civil war after taking power. In conclusion, gaining control of the revolutionary forces of coercion is seen to be pivotal to the establishment of the revolutionary state.