S.N. Eisenstadt, Ph.D. (1947), Jerusalem, is Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is member of many academies, recipient of honorary doctoral degrees of the Universities of Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Harvard, Duke, Budapest and Hebrew Union College. Recipient of many prizes and awards, he is author and editor of more than 50 books.

'... this is an important work in historical and comparative sociology that should be read by those seeking to understand both the structural causes of revolutions and the way the modern world came to be as it is.' S.C. Ward, Western Connecticut State University

• PrefacePart I - The Great Revolutions and the Origins and Crystallization of Modernity: Some Comparative ObservationsIntroductionChapter 1 - The Historical and Civilizational Frameworks of the Great RevolutionsChapter 2 - The Distinctive Characteristics of the Revolutionary Processes and IdeologiesPART II - The "Causes" and Historical - Civilizational Frameworks of RevolutionsChapter 3 - Structural and Social Psychological CausesChapter 4 - The Historical Settings - The Contradictions of “Early Modernity”Chapter 5 - The Civilizational Frameworks of the Great Revolutions - The Axial CivilizationsPart III - The Variability of Axial Civilizations and Political Dynamics – The Distinctiveness of the Revolutionary ProcessChapter 6 - "Other-worldly" Civilizations – The Hindu CivilizationChapter 7 - The Political Dynamics in "this-worldly" Civilization – the Chinese Confucian Political OrderChapter 8 - Monotheistic Civilizations — IslamChapter 9 - Christian Civilizations – the European ComplexChapter 10 - A Comparative excursus: Japan – the Non-Axial Revolutionary Revolutions and Concluding Remarks Conception of social orders; access to the political order and political dynamicsPart IV - Cosmological Visions, Modes of Regulation and Revolutionary Potentials: Political Dynamics in Axial Civilizations Chapter 11 - Revolutionary Potentials in Axial CivilizationsChapter 12 - Cosmological Visions, Modes of Regulation, and Political Dynamics in Imperial and Imperial-Feudal Societies Chapter 13 - Cosmological Visions, Modes of Regulation, and Political Dynamics in Patrimonial RegimesChapter 14 - Concluding Observations – The "Causes", Historical Contexts and Civilizational Frameworks of RevolutionsPart V – The Outcomes of RevolutionsChapter 15 - The Outcomes of Revolutions - The Crystallization of the Political and Cultural Programs of Modernity Chapter 16 - The Outcomes of Revolutions - The Variability of Revolutionary Symbolism in Modern Societies – Preliminary IndicationsChapter 17 - The New Setting - Changes in the Modes of the Model of the Nation and Revolutionary State