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The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

Author Paul Kennedy
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Paperback
$25.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Jan 15, 1989 | 704 Pages | 9780679720195
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In this magisterial work Kennedy “presents a clearly defined and closely reasoned thesis explaining the subject matter of the title—why nations rise and fall, and why the process is still continuing.” (The New York Times Book Review).

“Important, learned, and lucid. . . . Kennedy’s great achievement is that he makes us see our current international problems against a background of empires that have gone under because they were unable to sustain the material cost of greatness; and he does so in a universal historical perspective of which Ranke would surely have approved.” —New York Review of Books
Acknowledgments
Maps
Tables and Charts
Introduction
 
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE PREINDUSTRIAL WORLD

1. The Rise of the Western World
Ming China
The Muslim World
Two Outsiders—Japan and Russia
The "European Miracle"

2. The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659
The Meaning and Chronology of the Struggle
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Habsburg Bloc
International Comparisons
War, Money, and the Nation-State

3. Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815
The "Financial Revolution"
Geopolitics
The Winning of Wars, 1660–1763
The Winning of Wars, 1763–1815

STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE INDUSTRIAL ERA

4. Industrialization and the Shifting Global Balances, 1815–1885
The Eclipse of the Non-European World
Britain as Hegemon?
The "Middle Powers"
The Crimean War and the Erosion of Russian Power
The United States and the Civil War
The Wars of German Unification
Conclusions

5. The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the "Middle Powers": Part One, 1885-1918 
The Shifting Balance of World Forces
The Position of the Powers, 1885–1914
Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890–1914
Total War and the Power Balances, 1914–1918

6. The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the "Middle Powers": Part Two, 1919–1942
The Postwar International Order
The Challengers
The Offstage Superpowers
The Unfolding Crisis, 1931–1942

STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS TODAY AND TOMORROW

7. Stability and Change in a Bipolar World, 1943–1980
"The Proper Application of Overwhelming Force"
The New Strategic Landscape
The Cold War and the Third World
The Fissuring of the Bipolar World
The Changing Economic Balances, 1950 to 1980

8. To the Twenty-first Century
History and Speculation
China's Balancing Act
The Japanese Dilemma
The EEC—Potential and Problems
The Soviet Union and Its "Contradictions"
The United States: The Problem of Number One in Relative Decline
 
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Paul Kennedy is internationally known for his writings and commentaries on global political, economic, and strategic issues. He earned his B.A. at Newcastle University and his doctorate at the University of Oxford. Since 1983, he has been the Dilworth Professor of History and director of international security studies at Yale University. He is on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals and writes for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and many foreign-language newspapers and magazines. Kennedy is the author and editor of nineteen books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into more than twenty languages, followed by Preparing for the Twenty-first Century (1993) and The Parliament of Man (2006). View titles by Paul Kennedy

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In this magisterial work Kennedy “presents a clearly defined and closely reasoned thesis explaining the subject matter of the title—why nations rise and fall, and why the process is still continuing.” (The New York Times Book Review).

“Important, learned, and lucid. . . . Kennedy’s great achievement is that he makes us see our current international problems against a background of empires that have gone under because they were unable to sustain the material cost of greatness; and he does so in a universal historical perspective of which Ranke would surely have approved.” —New York Review of Books

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Maps
Tables and Charts
Introduction
 
STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE PREINDUSTRIAL WORLD

1. The Rise of the Western World
Ming China
The Muslim World
Two Outsiders—Japan and Russia
The "European Miracle"

2. The Habsburg Bid for Mastery, 1519–1659
The Meaning and Chronology of the Struggle
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Habsburg Bloc
International Comparisons
War, Money, and the Nation-State

3. Finance, Geography, and the Winning of Wars, 1660–1815
The "Financial Revolution"
Geopolitics
The Winning of Wars, 1660–1763
The Winning of Wars, 1763–1815

STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS IN THE INDUSTRIAL ERA

4. Industrialization and the Shifting Global Balances, 1815–1885
The Eclipse of the Non-European World
Britain as Hegemon?
The "Middle Powers"
The Crimean War and the Erosion of Russian Power
The United States and the Civil War
The Wars of German Unification
Conclusions

5. The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the "Middle Powers": Part One, 1885-1918 
The Shifting Balance of World Forces
The Position of the Powers, 1885–1914
Alliances and the Drift to War, 1890–1914
Total War and the Power Balances, 1914–1918

6. The Coming of a Bipolar World and the Crisis of the "Middle Powers": Part Two, 1919–1942
The Postwar International Order
The Challengers
The Offstage Superpowers
The Unfolding Crisis, 1931–1942

STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS TODAY AND TOMORROW

7. Stability and Change in a Bipolar World, 1943–1980
"The Proper Application of Overwhelming Force"
The New Strategic Landscape
The Cold War and the Third World
The Fissuring of the Bipolar World
The Changing Economic Balances, 1950 to 1980

8. To the Twenty-first Century
History and Speculation
China's Balancing Act
The Japanese Dilemma
The EEC—Potential and Problems
The Soviet Union and Its "Contradictions"
The United States: The Problem of Number One in Relative Decline
 
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author

Paul Kennedy is internationally known for his writings and commentaries on global political, economic, and strategic issues. He earned his B.A. at Newcastle University and his doctorate at the University of Oxford. Since 1983, he has been the Dilworth Professor of History and director of international security studies at Yale University. He is on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals and writes for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and many foreign-language newspapers and magazines. Kennedy is the author and editor of nineteen books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into more than twenty languages, followed by Preparing for the Twenty-first Century (1993) and The Parliament of Man (2006). View titles by Paul Kennedy

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