Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present

“Trump’s hour-long campaign speeches could be boiled down to four lines: The Chinese are taking away your factories. The Mexicans are taking away your jobs. The Muslims are trying to kill you. I will beat them all up and make America great again. It was a message of nationalism, chauvinism, protectionism, and isolationism.”

Zakaria makes this point early in the book to emphasize the fear-driven concepts that fuel populist movements. In Trump’s case, as is true of most populist leaders, his xenophobic appeal is based on a deep suspicion of those who are defined as “the other.” The solution offered is simplistic and reductive, but it nonetheless holds an enduring fascination for voters who are uneasy in the face of rapid change and demand simple solutions.

“Radical advance is followed by backlash and a yearning for a past golden age imagined as simple, ordered, and pure. This is a pattern we see throughout history.”

With this passage, Zakaria observes that those who fear the future are predisposed to romanticize the past. By making this statement in the introduction, Zakaria sets up the tension between progress and regression that he will trace as the pattern of all revolutions for the past 400 years.

“It is important to appreciate the organic nature of society, which can absorb only so much disruption without being torn apart. But at the end of the day, there is only one plausible path in the long run: forward.”

This observation implies a plea for tolerance, especially given that the polarization of contemporary politics leaves little room for tolerating—much less understanding—the opposite view. Fanatical zeal for change results in contempt for stasis and those who promote it. Zakaria suggests that most people, regardless of their political persuasion, have a limit when it comes to unrelenting instability.