Main Method: Moore uses comparative historical analysis and various case studies to discuss how social classes and inter-class coalitions transformed nations

Summary of Methods: Moore first compares how the English and French progressed from feudal and ecclesiastical orders to the establishment of a relatively free society. He argues that the classes in the countryside played a significant part in transforming the culture towards industrialism. The focus shifted from investing in people to farm the land to investing capital into the land itself. Land was treated as a commodity which could be bought and sold, and when the English Civil War took away the barriers to enclosures, it destroyed the traditional peasant society. In France the bourgeoisie had taken land from distressed nobles and started to move up in higher social circles as they gained wealth. The penetration of commercial and capitalistic practices into agriculture by feudal methods caused the ‘ancient regime’ to be challenged. Moore then shifts his focus to discuss how the American Civil War became a “series of ramparts around property” and it became protected from state governments by the federal institution. The use of slavery was important for capitalism to flourish in the U.S.; however, with slavery’s abolishment it allowed the country to develop further West without the concern of the moral and political upheaval over slave labor.

Moore then discusses how Japan and Germany become fascist states in which democracy was hindered by labor-repressive agricultural systems. Authoritarian governments were established due to the retention of political power by the landed elite. The peasants never had a revolutionary break-through like England or France, and therefore remained subjected to their control and authority. These countries failed to bring about proper structural changes and tried to modernize without changing their social class structure.

Lastly, Moore discusses how China and Russia never created an urban trading and manufacturing class comparable to Western Europe. Chinese industry largely remained in the shadows of provincial gentry and they failed to adopt commercial agriculture. The countries result in a communist form of industrial development due to poor class structure between the political elites and modern economic growth. “A highly segmented society that depends on diffuse sanctions for its coherence is immune to peasant rebellion because opposition is likely to take the form of creating another segment” (p. 459). The most important causes of peasant revolutions have been the absence of a commercial revolution in agriculture led by the landed upper class and the concomitant survival of peasant social institutions on the modern era.

Conclusion: The methods of modernization chosen in one country change the dimensions of the problems for the next countries who take the step towards development