Portugal's 1974 military coup brought down the longest established fascist regime in the history of the world and the only remaining colonial empire, and set loose a tremendous political upsurge by ordinary Portuguese citizens. People who had never discussed politics above a whisper shouted and debated their dreams. As they seized control of factories and neighborhoods, they took control of their lives. In Building Popular Power, John L. Hammond describes those extraordinary days of workplace and community takeovers. He tells the story of how people called for, worked for, and embodied a new model of revolution based on popular power. Although their bid for revolutionary change was turned back and many of their initiatives strangled, their efforts and achievements made popular participation central to the attempt to construct socialism.