ÒOne of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.Ó_John Gray, New York Times Book Review ÒA powerful, and in many [ways] insightful, explanation as to why grandiose programs of social reform, not to mention revolution, so often end in tragedy. . . . An important critique of visionary state planning.Ó_Robert Heilbroner, Lingua Franca. Hailed as Òa magisterial critique of top-down social planningÓ by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail_sometimes catastrophically_in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. ÒBeautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.Ó_New Yorker ÒA tour de force.Ó_Charles Tilly, Columbia University