The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 - Softcover

Kennedy, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679720197 ISBN 13: 9780679720195

Publisher: Vintage, 1989

Synopsis

About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Kennedy is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Preparing for the Twenty-first Century and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. He serves on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals and has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and several other publications. Educated at Newcastle University and Oxford University, he is a former fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn.

Review:

`A brilliantly original book...It is intended for the intelligent layman as well as the academic historian, combining in Toynbee-esque manner the sweeping conception with careful attention to historical detail' Financial Times `This book is falling out of briefcases all over Washington DC, both because it looks and sounds erudite and because it purports to answer an increasingly common question: Has the United States already embarked on its journey into the sunset of empire? It is administering a lot of frissons to trend-watchers' Christopher Hitchens `Outstanding...He ranges across five centuries and around the whole world. He seems to have read every relevant book in every possible language. And he has produced a general argument so deceptively simple that no politician, however busy, should ignore or misunderstand it' Observer `One of the masterpieces of modern historical writing' Daily Telegraph `A masterpiece of exposition. It is erudite and elegantly written' New Society `A remarkable book...long, clever, often funny, and crammed with remarkable insights; it is tinged with the genius that unravels complexity' Evening Standard `Shows a master historian's ability to use evidence like a boxing champion's uppercut' TES `One of those rare (and irresistible) books which successfully combine the scope and sweep of `popular' history with the discriminating rigour of professional historiography, making it both a bloody good read and a thought-provoking one' Listener

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0679720197
• ISBN 13: 9780679720195
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 704