“Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present”
Reading Age of Revolutions felt like connecting the dots between centuries of upheaval — from the rise of capitalism to the fading “Liberal Order” of the postwar world. Zakaria’s take doesn’t just retell history; it helps make sense of where we are now.
History is always in motion, but some moments stand out as true turning points — inflection points that reshape everything that follows. The one we choose as our starting point often determines how we interpret what comes next.
We often (understandably) use World War II as the inflection point for modern history, especially because - as this book points out - of Bretton Woods. Even so, I think that the dawn of Capitalism is often a more appropriate starting point. I’d personally put that in Belgium in the early 1600s.
So, I was heartened when Fareed Zakaria began his book with just that event. From there, he continues on to several more significant revolutions roughly chronologically moving forward from the dawn of Capitalism in the Netherlands.
Having recently finished the first ten seasons of the Revolutions Podcast, this was especially satisfying. There is a significant overlap between the revolutions that Mike Duncan covers in the podcast and those that Fareed Zakaria covers in his book.
The podcast has more time to dive into the particulars of each revolution and this book gives more focus to the lessons of each. Zakaria then does a very good job of synthesizing the lessons of each.
Honestly, I was hungry for even more of this synthesis. My one complaint about Duncan’s podcast (and most history coverage generally) is that it leans too much on chronology and not enough on the patterns and lessons behind it.
This book, however, does an admirable job of attempting to draw those lessons and use them to frame the challenges of the present.
Zakaria sees our current era as one of transition — a move away from the post–World War II “Liberal Order” shaped at Bretton Woods. Perhaps even returning to global norms before that liberal order was established.
It is important to note (as Zakaria does throughout the book) that “liberal” in the sense of “liberal order” isn’t really the same as the modern usage of “liberal” as opposed to conservative in modern American politics.
Whether or not you agree with Zakaria’s conclusions, he succeeds in placing our current moment within an informative historical context and in providing possible lessons to draw from recent (vis-a-vis the dawn of Capitalism) events.
Age of Revolutions doesn’t just recount history; it challenges us to see the patterns repeating in our own time. Zakaria’s perspective reminds us that progress and backlash are two sides of the same coin — and that lasting change requires balancing the two.