Book excerpt: What causes revolution? What brought about the end of the last major monarchies of the modern period? Were Louis XVI, Nicholas II, and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the unwitting victims of historical circumstance, or did their own actions help to bring about the revolutions that overthrew them? This powerful and original book is the first comparative study of the revolutions in Bourbon France, Romanov Russia and Pahlavi Iran. Zhand Shakibi analyses fully the timing and causes of these three revolutions and reveals the important similarities between them. "Revolutions and the Collapse of Monarchy" argues provocatively that it is often the monarch's own personality that provides the vital spark which produces revolution. This ambitious and important book challenges the Marxist interpretation of history and adds a compelling new perspective to theories of revolution.