Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2022 -

In this edited volume, Motadel (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) assembles a cohort of leading scholars from history, sociology, and area studies to engage in a global conversation about revolutions in the modern world. The coverage is comprehensive. Not only does the collection treat major world historical events--including, but not limited to, the Atlantic Revolutions, the Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the constitutional movements after 1950, the October Revolution in Russia, the anticolonial protests after the Paris Peace Conference, the Third World movement, the Iranian Revolution, the revolutions of 1989, and the Arab Spring uprisings--it also addresses their wider impact. All the chapters highlight transnational connectivity and world-historical comparison in revolution studies, transcending the narrowly defined national framework of previous studies. Motadel's introduction offers a smooth narrative connecting revolutionary events addressed in the volume in a meaningful and organic way. The references cited in the footnotes are especially helpful for pedagogical purposes. This book is an excellent choice for any upper-level thematic world/global history course on revolution. It can also help junior scholars gain a global perspective on modern revolutionary movements.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Banner's central contention is undeniable: although works on historiography abound, very few have delved deeply into either the subject or history of revisionism. This book masterfully addresses these lacunae and will become a modern starting point for future discussions of this topic. An early chapter on the shifting interpretations regarding the causes of the American Civil War demonstrates that understanding both the historian and her/his/their time is crucial for uncovering the origins, reception, and significance of a new outlook. Using the metaphor of geological strata, revisionism is seen as a layer, both dependent on what came before as well as something new and different (and, ultimately, superseded). This is followed by two chapters that survey major revisions of Western historical understanding (classical, Christian, Marxist, and modern) and a chapter that undertakes a basic typology of revision (e.g., philosophical, conceptual, evidence-based, method-driven). An exploration of the changing perspectives on the French Revolution, as well as on how museologists, historians, and the public disagreed over what to include in the display of the Enola Gay in the National Air and Space Museum, wonderfully illustrates how revisionism reflects and revises the present.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.