Armies in revolution

"Political power, " according to Mao Tse-Tung, "grows out of the barrel of a gun" and Ellis' book explores this Maoist dictum. Examining the histories of seven revolutionary armies: Cromwell's New Model Army, Washington's Continental Army, France Bourgeois National Guard of 1789, The Prussian Army, the Parisian Communards of 1871, Trotsky's Bolshevik Regiment and Mao's Red army. He then further explains how they contributed to the destruction of the existing regimes and establishment of new ones. It also tells of the broad relationship between the armies and society.