Condensing ten years of history into a few hundred pages is not easy! The sections on Brazil were the strongest, probably by virtue of Bevins' own experience. Some of the historical context outside of Brazil felt a little perfunctory, and the writing is largely casual. But it's all done in the service of accessibility. These are complex movements and histories, and Bevins does as good a job as anyone at making them accessible for readers.

The actual analysis is light but straightforward. Bevins concludes that horizontal organization is not a particularly effective structure (or non-structure) for revolutionary movements. Instead, the case studies here result in leadership vacuums. These vacuums are quickly occupied by (right-wing) opportunists. The end results differ from anything the initial actors might have envisioned or hoped for. It’s a valuable study, if not a little bleak.

His conclusion aligns with my own ideological leanings, but I'm sure readers on the anarcho side would dispute it. I’m not close enough to a lot of the history to gauge or take issue with his summaries, but they seem well-researched and precise enough. In any case, these are important, largely misunderstood movements and events, and I'm glad Bevins collected a general outline of them here.