The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
| Full title | The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul Kennedy |
| Published | 1987 |
| Pages | 704 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Paul Kennedy’s case that great-power standing tracks relative economic strength over the long run, with military position following the economy at a lag — and that powers hold on to commitments after the productive base that paid for them has moved elsewhere, his “imperial overstretch.” The standard account of why the ranking of states changes. |
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Where I heard about it
- Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, under History of Western Civilization, which moves from the founding texts to the record of what actually happened to states that held power. He lists it as Random House, 1987.
About this edition
The book runs from the Habsburgs through the Napoleonic wars, the two world wars and the Cold War. Its 1987 conclusion applied the pattern to the United States and the Soviet Union and became the book’s controversy; the Soviet half aged well, and the American half has been argued over ever since.
Connections
- Li Lu’s Recommended Book List — the list this came from.
- Geopolitics — the frame: economics first, strategy second.
- World War II — one of the book’s turning points in the relative-strength ledger.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.