The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion

Mark Beissinger - Princeton University
The Revolutionary City: Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion

Abstract
Based on his new book The Revolutionary City:  Urbanization and the Global Transformation of Rebellion (Princeton University Press, 2022), Mark Beissinger will examine the ways in which the concentration of people, power, and wealth in cities over the past century has altered the incidence, practice, and consequences of revolution.  Using novel cross-national and survey data, as well as examples from across the world, Beissinger shows how proximity to nerve centers of power shapes revolutionary tactics, increases the impact of human error on revolutionary outcomes, and transforms revolutionary contention into a struggle for control over public space.  As urbanization has proceeded and revolutionary oppositions in cities have come to rely more on the power of numbers rather than the power of arms, revolutionary coalitions have grown negative and broadly eclectic, having profound effects on what follows after revolution. Even as revolutions have grown more frequent, their effects have become more ambiguous and uncertain.