events in Vietnam contrasted sharply with a simple revolt against foreign occupiers. The dichotomization of Vietnamese population between the rural peasantry and the urban elites, the horizontal bisection of the country for non-geographical reasons, and expansion of the revolutionary party's antipathy into other areas outside the French occupation are events in Vietnam in the 20th century that McAlister uses to support his thesis. Explaining revolution Aside from characterizing the events in Vietnam as a revolution, McAlister also supports his thesis by arguing why Vietnam underwent a revolution. He does this by drawing a connection between modernity and revolution. In the conclusion of the book he provides evidence that a necessary prerequisite for a large scale revolution is modernization of the revolutionary class. This is supported by other revolutions, for example, those that occurred in Germany and Russia in the 20th century. The group that ultimately became the revolutionary class in Vietnam was the modernized middle class. These were people who were educated and modernized by French institutions, who were expected to serve in the higher level French colonial institutions; thus they felt entitled to an entry into politics, but the French denied them that perceived right. The author concludes that the revolution in Vietnam occurred because the modernized and educated middle class were denied entry into a political realm to which they felt they were entitled. McAlister argues that the revolutionaries in Vietnam made closing the gap between the educated urbanites with the rural peasantry their central objective. The population of Vietnam was fragmented by geography, class, and culture. The mountain ranges and slim dimensions of Vietnam increased the tendency of the population to be isolated from each other. The population was further split into groups of those who tenaciously adhered to their Confucian values and those who admired the possession of wealth ushered in by the French. To bridge this gap, the Vietnamese revolutionaries used political ideology as a catalyst for solidarity and motivation. Although communism was the dominant political ideology associated with Vietnam during the 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism played an important role in the incipient revolutionary movement. This was due to pragmatic reasons rather than to an ideological conviction. Because Vietnam was culturally and politically fragmented, no single interest could unite a substantial amount of the population. The only way to unite the country and foment solidarity among a heterogeneous population was through emphasizing their common bond,