A New York Times BestsellerThe international bestselling author explores the revolutions past and present that define the chaotic polarized and unstable age in which we live.Fareed Zakaria first warned of the threat of illiberal democracy two decades ago. Now comes Age of Revolutions Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present. A decade in the making the book is based on deep research and conversations with world leaders from Emmanuel Macron to Lee Kuan Yew. In it Zakaria sets our era of populist chaos into the sweep of history.Age of Revolutions tells the story of progress and backlash of the rise of classical liberalism and of the many periods of rage and counterrevolution that followed seismic change. It begins with the upstart Dutch Republic the first modern republic and technosuperpower where refugees and rebels flocked for individual liberty. That haven for liberalism was almost snuffed out by force until Dutch ideas leapt across the English Channel in the socalled Glorious Revolution. Not all revolutions were so glorious however. The French Revolution shows us the dangers of radical change that is imposed topdown. Lasting change comes bottomup like the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the United States which fueled the rise of the worlds modern superpowers and gave birth to the political divides we know today. Even as Britain and America boomed technology unsettled society and caused backlash from machinesmashing Luddites and others who felt threatened by this new world.In the second half of the book Zakaria details the revolutions that have convulsed our times globalization in overdrive digital transformation the rise of identity politics and the return of great power politics with a vengeful Russia and an ascendant China. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jingping see a world upended by liberalism and want to turn back the clock on democracy womens rights and open societies. Even more dangerous than aggression abroad is democratic decay at home. This populist