No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991(Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

No Other Way Out provides a powerful explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the 'state-centered' tradition of Theda Skocpol's States and Social Revolutions and Jack Goldstone's Revolutions and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the 'only way out', to use Trotsky's formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.

Table of Contents:
Figures, tables and maps; Abbreviations and acronyms; Preface and acknowledgments; Part I. Introduction: 1. Comparing revolutionary movements; 2. The state-centered perspective on revolutions: strengths and limitations; Part II. Southeast Asia: Chronology for Southeast Asia; 3. The formation of revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia; 4. The only domino: the Vietnamese revolution in comparative perspective; Part III. Central America: Chronology for Central America; 5. The formation of revolutionary movements in Central America; 6. Not-so-inevitable revolutions: the political trajectory of revolutionary movements in Central America; Part IV. Further Comparisons and Theoretical Elaborations: 7. Between success and failure: persistent insurgencies; Chronology for Eastern Europe; 8. 'Refolution' and rebellion in Eastern Europe, 1989; 9. Conclusion: generalizations and prognostication; Annotated bibliography; Index.

Review :
"This delightful and engaging book, crammed chock-full of thought-provoking and challenging ideas, is one of the finest books on revolutions written to date and merits the wide consideration and regard it will receive." American Political Science Review "Jeff Goodwin has written the theoretically richest account of challenges to regimes around the world in the Cold War era. Covering cases from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe in deft style, with an invaluable annotated bibliography, this is a major addition to the comparative study of revolutions." Jack A. Goldstone, University of California, Davis "No Other Way Out is one of the most brilliant, important, and accessible books ever written on the subject of revolutions and revolutionary movements. I will assign this book to my students so they can discover what an outstanding sociology of revolutions should look like." Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Georgetown University "A very ambitious work...Goodwin does a good job of laying out the nature of state-centric theory as well as alternative arguments that might explain revolutionary movements or cirumstances--those of modernization and class-based theories. He is extraordinarly careful in his exposition...Goodwin clearly has mastered a great deal of literature, not only on the subject of revolutions and revolutionary situations, but on a whole range of historical materials dealing with the countries under his microscope. He provides an excellent annotated bibliography at the end of the book, one that many graduate students and scholars will find enormously useful." Mobilization "No Other Way Out is one of the most brilliant, important, and accessible books ever written on the subject of revolutions and revolutionary movements. I will assign this book to my students so they can discover what an outstanding sociology of revolutions should look like." Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Georgetown University