The modern world has been marked by social revolutions that have transformed the states where they occurred. Theda Skocpol examines three of these uprisings—the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions—to consider the forces that make such dramatic upheaval possible. She pinpoints several common factors that affected each of these countries at the time. Skocpol argues that most critically was the external threats that forced all three countries to modernize suddenly and violently. This disrupted the relationship between the state and the country's elites, giving the people the chance to revolt. The ensuing disorder plunged the states into chaos before they emerged again as new societies.