Why revolutions happen

Is a book that distils lessons from revolutions complete without a study of the Chinese experience or that of Arab Spring? Which one created a more profound impact, Thaksin Shinawatra’s troubles in Thailand or Ho Chi Minh’s success in Vietnam?

Revolutions are like special snowflakes, as Sam Wilkin notes in his latest book History Repeating: Why Populists Rise and Governments Fail. They are impossible to replicate successfully, “each requiring an essentially unrepeatable set of conditions”. Yet each century, and especially the 20th, has seen a deluge of revolutions. The 21st century appears to be seeing more of them, contradicting the mistaken