Revolutions and the collapse of monarchy: human agency and the making of revolution in France, Russia and Iran

What caused revolution among the last major monarchies of the modern period? Why were Louis XVI, Nicholas II and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi all overthrown and was this the result of their historical background or individual action? This powerful and original book is the first comparative study of the implosion of the monarchical regimes in Bourbon France, Romanov Russia and Pahlavi Iran. Seeking to understand fully the causes and timing of the French, Russian and Iranian revolutions, Shakibi examines the complex interaction between the personality and behavior of the monarchs and the different problems faced by their regimes which turned a potentially revolutionary situation into the revolutions which engulfed France in the eighteenth century, Russia in 1917 and Iran in 1978-8. Drawing on a huge amount of primary and archival research throughout the world, Revolutions and the Collapse of the Monarchy argues that it is human agency which often provides the vital spark which produces revolution. An ambitious and important counter-blast to traditional theories of revolution