the central 'thesis' of "out of revolution" (also laid out in "die europaeischen revolutionen", which adopts a different order and provides a more detailed theoretical casting of the material) was that the second millennium had created a planetary consciousness, though not yet a planetary peace. that consciousness had been formed from the great convulsions that occurred in europe in what he terms the 'total revolutions.' unlike rebellions or regime overthrows, 'total revolutions' are driven by a desire to achieve the longed for 'kingdom of heaven' - they are forms of the 'last judgment', in which one age is condemned and a new one erected to deliver the promise of the second coming. from gregory vii's desire to revolutionize the church—what rosenstock-huessy calls the papal revolution, and what is more commonly referred to as the investiture conflict—to marx and lenin's attempt to unify the workers of the world, europe and then the world have been swept up by forces which were first unleashed in the struggles to end the unbearable injustices of the past and create the promised kingdom. rosenstock-huessy analyses the major contributions/ legacies of what he calls the 'secular revolutions'—the russian, the french, the english and the german (the reformation)—and the 'ecclesiastical' revolutions—a more complex array of forces which involves a detailed analysis of the holy roman empire as he works his way, "inter alia," through the investiture conflict, the war between guelfs and ghibbelines, the italian warring states, the italian renaissance, the survival of the austria-hungarian empire, industrialisation and the founding of america and its subsequent revolution.