Religious fundamentalist, extremist nationalist, and democratic revolutions have occurred in various parts of the world since the Cold War. Since much of the theoretical literature on revolutions examines either the "great" revolutions or the Marxist-Leninist revolutions in Third World countries, a re-examination of revolution in the post-Cold War era is crucial.

Mark N. Katz re-reads important works on revolutions to cull concepts that are still relevant and to update ideas that have changed since their publication.