The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000With 200,000 hardcover copies in print, this book has received worldwide attention. Kennedy explains how the various world powers have risen and fallen over the five centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in Western Europe. |
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The improvements in the muzzle - loading gun ( percussion caps , rifling , etc . )
were ominous enough ; the coming of the breechloader , vastly increasing the
rate of fire , was an even greater advance ; and the Gatling guns , Maxims , and
light ...
... 000 tons , had an energy consumption from modern fuel sources fifteen times
as large , and a railway mileage thirty times greater ( and even three times
greater than Britain ' s ) . By contrast , the United States possessed a regular army
of a ...
The frailty of Britain ' s international and economic position was partially
disguised in the early post - 1945 period by the even greater weakness of other
states , the prudent withdrawals from India and Palestine , the short - term surge
in exports ...
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The rise and fall of the great powers: economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictYale historian Kennedy surveys the ebb and flow of power among the major states of Europe from the 16th centurywhen Europe's preeminence first took shapethrough and beyond the present erawhen great ... Read full review
Learning from History, July 19, 2003
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Kennedy chronicles the rise of the Great Powers starting with the Ming Dynasty in China and taking us all the way to the contemporary times of the 1980s.
By analyzing world history through the prisms of economical, political, and military status of each great rising power, Kennedy fuses a theory of why certain countries throughout history (1500-present) rose to be regional or world powers and why they later collapsed.
<P>
As the other reviewers noted, Kennedy's book falls short of accurately predicting the changes that were to follow the publication date of his book (fall of Russia, Asian market crises). Nevertheless this book is a valuable historical resource.
Contents
The Rise of the Western World | 3 |
World Power Centers in the Sixteenth Century | 5 |
2 | 18 |
Copyright | |
32 other sections not shown