"No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991" provides an explanation for the emergence of popular revolutionary movements, and the occurrence of actual revolutions, during the Cold War era. This sweeping study ranges from Southeast Asia in the 1940s and 1950s to Central America in the 1970s and 1980s and Eastern Europe in 1989. Following in the "state-centered" tradition of Theda Skocpol's "States and Social Revolutions," Goodwin demonstrates how the actions of specific types of authoritarian regimes unwittingly channeled popular resistance into radical and often violent directions. Revolution became the "only way out," to use Trotsky's formulation, for the opponents of these intransigent regimes. By comparing the historical trajectories of more than a dozen countries, Goodwin also shows how revolutionaries were sometimes able to create, and not simply exploit, opportunities for seizing state power.

Part 1. Introduction. Comparing revolutionary movements -- The state-centered perspective on revolutions: strengths and limitations / Part 2. Southeast Asia. Chronology for Southeast Asia -- The formation of revolutionary movements in Southeast Asia -- The only domino: the Vietnamese revolution in comparative perspective / Part 3. Central America. Chronology for Central America -- The formation of revolutionary movements in Central America -- Not-so-inevitable revolutions: the political trajectory of revolutionary movements in Central America / Part 4. Further comparisons and theoretical elaborations. Between success and failure: persistent insurgencies; chronology for Eastern Europe -- "Refolution" and rebellion in Eastern Europe, 1989 -- Conclusion: generalizations and prognostication.