WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE Paul Kennedy's international bestseller is a sweeping account of five hundred years of fluctuating economic muscle & military might Kennedy's masterwork begins in the year 1500 at a time of various great centres of power including Minh China the Ottomans the rising Mughal state the nations of Europe But it was the latter which through competition economic growth & better military organisation came to dominate the globe
- until challenged later by Japan the Soviet Union & the United States Now China boosted by its own economic prowess rises to the fore Throughout this brilliant work Kennedy persuasively demonstrates the interdependence of economic & military power showing how an imbalance between the two has historically led to spectacular political disaster Erudite & brilliantly original The Rise & Fall of the Great Powers is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the politics of power