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

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

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.