The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times: A History Of Now

Product Description

In the decades since the end of the Second World War it has been widely assumed that the western model of liberal democracy & free trade is the way the world should be governed However events in the early years of the twenty-first century
- first the 2003 war with Iraq & its chaotic aftermath & second the financial crash of 2008
- have threatened the general acceptance that continued progress under the benign (or sometimes not so benign) gaze of the western powers is the only way forwards & as America turns inwards & Europe is beset by austerity politics & populist nationalism the post-war consensus looks less & less secure But is this really the worst of times? In a forensic examination of the world we now live in acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh sets out to answer that question Who could have imagined that China would champion globalization & lead the battle on climate change? Or that post-Soviet Russia might present a greater threat to the world's stability than ISIS? & while we may be on the cusp of still more dramatic change perhaps the risks will
- in time
- bring not only change but a wholly positive transformation Incisive robust & always insightful The Best of Times The Worst of Times is both a dazzling tour d'horizon of the world as it is today & a surprisingly optimistic vision of the world as it might become