The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

Back when I was in college, I felt the need for a course that looked at how economics, politics and warfare all combined to form statecraft. I never got to take that non-existent course, but got what I wanted in "Rise and Fall of Great Powers." Paul Kennedy wrote a 500-year history of grand strategy......more

Kennedy is the man. There's not much else to say. Sure, the thesis is "simplistic" or "schematic" or "deterministic" or whatever other bombastic term pseudo-intellectuals (and legitimate intellectuals alike) choose to use, but one has to understand that the project of this book is to make some sort......more

17.01.2022: Още един камък по Кенеди и изчетените 15-18-ти век - той гордо нарича англичаните “нация на търговци”. Тъй като си играе с генерализации, явно има предвид Източноиндийската Компсния с нейните 200,000 частнокорпоративни войници (през 1803 г.), които надхвърлят два пъти армията на Короната......more

What a disappointment this book is. Can you imagine a book that purports to explain the rise of European wealth and domination over the rest of the world that not once mentions slavery? That spends all of two pages skimming over colonialism (without ever using the word) and only a handful of brief m......more

A jelző, ami eszembe jut, a "tárgyszerű". Tárgyszerű fizikai értelemben, a maga hatszáz sűrűn szedett oldalával, a bő száz oldalas jegyzettel a végén, egyszóval: egész böszme testi valójában. És tárgyszerű mint szöveg is, mondhatni, semmi extra, csak épp összefoglalása a komplett emberi történelemne......more