The Rise of Global Powers
International Politics in the Era of the World Wars

This study of the great powers' expansionism encompasses the global events of the first half of the twentieth century.

Anthony D'Agostino (Author)

9780521195867, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 November 2011

570 pages, 10 maps
23.5 x 15.5 x 3 cm, 1 kg

'Anthony D'Agostino's new book is a genuinely new and exciting take on the history of international relations in the first half of the twentieth century, and will be a very satisfying read for those calling for the discipline to finally overcome its Eurocentric perspective.' The RUSI Journal

Does a system of great powers necessarily imply a struggle for world primacy? Do great states merely hold onto what is theirs, or do they reach for more? Anthony D'Agostino offers a fascinating new answer to these questions through a fundamental reassessment of the international history of the first half of the twentieth century. From the spatial limits of a purely European great power politics the book looks out to the new horizon of world politics. From the time limits of 1914 to 1945 it considers the interface with nineteenth-century imperialism at one end and the impact of the world wars on the Cold War at the other. This is a global retelling of the expansion of Europe coming up against its limits in the most violent conflicts and explosive social movements yet known to history, the two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Russian and Chinese revolutions.

1. The great powers at the dawn of world politics
2. Global origins of World War One: from the China scramble to the world crisis of 1904–1906
3. Global origins of World War One: a chain of revolutionary events around the world island
4. Balance and revolution, 1914–1918
5. A ragged peace, 1919
6. Scramble for Eurasia, 1919–1922
7. Drastic acts of unhappy powers, 1922–1923
8. Storms in the lull, 1924–1927
9. Politics and economics of the Great Slump, 1928–1933
10. A vogue for national economy
11. Mussolini's moment, 1933–1935
12. Global civil war, 1936–1937
13. Last years of peace, 1937–1939
14. The European War, 1939–1941
15. The World War, 1941–1945
16. Balance and hegemony.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Second World War [HBWQ], First World War [HBWN], General & world history [HBG]