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. |
From inside the book
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5 percent ; in the next thirty years , British industrial expansion pushed that figure
to 19 . ... its zenith in relative terms , the United Kingdom produced 53 percent of
the world ' s iron and 50 percent of its coal and lignite , and consumed just under
...
had gone " off " gold meant that French exports became less and less competitive
, and its foreign trade collapsed : " imports went down by 60 percent and exports
by 70 percent . " 94 After some years of paralysis , the 1935 decision to deflate ...
Textile production , which still provided 40 percent of British exports , was cut by
two - thirds ; coal , which provided another 10 percent of exports , dropped by one
- fifth ; shipbuilding was so badly hit that in 1933 production fell to 7 percent of ...
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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.
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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