Coup D'Etat: A Practical Handbook
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it truly take to seize the reins of a modern state? Edward Luttwak's Coup D'Etat: A Practical Handbook is a masterwork of cold-eyed political analysis that chronicles, with surgical precision, the mechanics of overthrowing a government — not through revolution or war, but through the swift, calculated seizure of key institutions. Written with the detached authority of a strategist rather than a moralist, the book presents a step-by-step dissection of how coups are planned, executed, and consolidated, drawing on historical examples from across the globe to illustrate the conditions that make governments vulnerable to sudden collapse. Beyond its provocative premise, this landmark work argues that the coup d'état is a distinctly modern phenomenon, a product of the bureaucratic state and its centralised structures of power. Luttwak's prose is precise, almost clinical, yet carries an undercurrent of dark wit that makes the unthinkable feel disturbingly rational. First published in 1968 and reissued by Penguin, the book remains as relevant as ever — a fascinating, unsettling mirror held up to the fragility of political order, leaving the reader to wonder just how thin the line truly is between stability and chaos.
Author: Edward Luttwak
Format: Paperback
Genre: Politics & law
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Yellowed
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
What does it truly take to seize the reins of a modern state? Edward Luttwak's Coup D'Etat: A Practical Handbook is a masterwork of cold-eyed political analysis that chronicles, with surgical precision, the mechanics of overthrowing a government — not through revolution or war, but through the swift, calculated seizure of key institutions. Written with the detached authority of a strategist rather than a moralist, the book presents a step-by-step dissection of how coups are planned, executed, and consolidated, drawing on historical examples from across the globe to illustrate the conditions that make governments vulnerable to sudden collapse. Beyond its provocative premise, this landmark work argues that the coup d'état is a distinctly modern phenomenon, a product of the bureaucratic state and its centralised structures of power. Luttwak's prose is precise, almost clinical, yet carries an undercurrent of dark wit that makes the unthinkable feel disturbingly rational. First published in 1968 and reissued by Penguin, the book remains as relevant as ever — a fascinating, unsettling mirror held up to the fragility of political order, leaving the reader to wonder just how thin the line truly is between stability and chaos.