The collapse of communist power may well be seen by future historians as the most significant event of the late twentieth century. It directly affected approximately twenty countries in three continents and brought about the eventual end of the Cold War. Yet there are very few comparative and theoretical analyses of the 1989-91 revolutions; this book seeks to remedy that situation.

Holmes starts by considering official corruption and campaigns against it, seeing such campaigns as symptomatic of a legitimation crisis that developed in most of the communist world following the failure of the economic reforms of the 1960s and 1970s. He then considers other aspects of the growing legitimation crisis, and relates these directly to general crisis and collapse. In the conclusion, Holmes argues against those who have seen these revolutions as the final proof of the crisis of modernity.