Zakaria justifies his narrow geographical scope by suggesting that the legacy of a few major political and economic revolutions in the West forms a "master narrative" that can explain societal change elsewhere. But it is just weird to read a history of revolutions that barely mentions Vladimir Lenin ... Zakaria’s real preference is for slow, moderate revolts, preferably of the Anglo-American Protestant variety. But this inclination is exclusive to his treatment of political revolutions; he is quite forgiving of radical economic change, even when the result is mass suffering.
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