This masterful comparative history traces the West’s revolutionary tradition and its culmination in the Communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Unique in breadth and scope, History’s Locomotives offers a new interpretation of the origins and history of socialism as well as the meanings of the Russian Revolution, the rise of the Soviet regime, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union.
History’s Locomotives is the masterwork of an esteemed historian in whom a fine sense of historical particularity never interfered with the ability to see the large picture.

Attractively illustrated, this book offers a fascinating look at the life of the Roman soldier, drawing on everything from Rome's rich historical and archaeological record to soldier's personal correspondence to depictions of military subjects in literature and art.

'Yeats was one of the few whose history is the history of their own time, who are a part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them.' - T.S. Eliot 'You were silly like us; your gift survived it all; The parish of rich women, physical decay, yourself; Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.' - W.H Auden, In Memory of W.B. Yeats

'Mr Taylor, by cutting down to a minimum the ballast of dates and names that so often encumbers historical writing, and concentrating on the fundamental trends and events, has achieved both brevity and lucidity.' - The Observer

Product Description
In this typically crusading work, universally acclaimed as a classic on first publication, Midgley asserts her corrective view that without poetry (or literature, or music, or history, or even theology) we cannot hope to understand our humanity.