by Paul Kennedy
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Product Description
About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 One of the greatest books that I have ever read!, 2008-09-04
In this groundbreaking book, British author and historian Paul Kennedy looks at the history of the modern world, and examines why it is that some nations gained power while others lost it. Among the many factors examined are geographic location, national cohesion, technological advancement, military spending, economic development, and other economic factors. All of these factors influenced a nation's power, but with the rise of nationalism, and the movement towards coalitional conflicts, the various economic factors moved to the forefront, with the economically strongest coalitions being able to out-spend and out-last rival coalitions. As the book moves through the history of the world (with the earliest chapters focusing primarily on Europe), the reader is treated to a very interesting narrative of what happened and why.
There is a small group of books that strongly influenced me when I was a young adult, and I have kept them close by, reading them again and again over the years. One of those book is Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. I find the analysis in this book to be penetrating, and exceptionally on target. I think that the author's linking of national power to national economic strength is right on target.
Now, it is true that this book is in desperate need of updating. A great deal has happened since the book was first published in 1987. I would be interested to see what he would have to say about China's remarkable rise in power (which he predicted in the final chapter of this book), and the United States slow erosion of power, vis-à-vis the other great powers. But, nonetheless, this book is an excellent examination of the history of national power, with many lessons for modern and future world leaders.
If I could have one small wish granted, it would be that the top echelon of the next American administration would all read this excellent and highly informative book. This is one of the greatest books that I have ever read, and I highly recommend it to everyone!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Military interest, 2008-01-21
a seminal work and a must read for anyone in the military with an interest in world history and in events that caused the political, economic and military changes.
7 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
 Flawed premises lead to wrong conclusions, 2007-12-15
Kennedy's book chronicles the decline of the British empire, and argues that the American empire is next. This is because, he says, both empires suffered or currently suffer from "imperial overstretch," that unhappy state of affairs where military and defense obligations outweigh the benefits accrued from the subject territories. This is a seriously flawed premise which, at best, fits the British empire only loosely, and the United States not at all.
The British empire did spend heavily in the years leading up to WW I (which Kennedy argues led to its decline) but Britain actually spent less on defense, as a percentage of GDP, than the other great powers at the time.
The "overstretch" thesis is even less apposite in the context of the United States. First, the U.S. is not an "empire" as Kennedy defines it. Second, U.S. military obligations have not risen in proportion to its GDP to the height of the Vietnam War. Third, Kennedy fails to adequately explain a logical link between military expenditures and economic decline. He does attempt to explain the link in purely economic terms, i.e., the massive amounts spent to sustain a military force, but he does not explain how military spending, which declined relative to GDP, is somehow different than social welfare spending, which has taken an increasingly large share of GDP.
What appears to suffer most from "overstretch" is Kennedy's thesis itself.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A great book about international economics and power, 2007-11-24
A very well written and thought out book about how countries become powerful and what happens to affect their power
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
American Decline - War Spending, 2007-08-31
An absolutely indispensible source book to understand the deline of America to a second rate ex empire. Well written, and loaded with facts of production and distributiion, this is a somewhat "heavy text". Although America's future is not discussed per se, you reach the unavoidable conclusion that our nation, like all failed states in the past, declines and falls when it wastes its production of wealth on war. So it has ever been.
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