The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective

by Niall Ferguson, Charles S. Maier, Erez Manela, Daniel J. Sargent, Jeremy Adelman

Overview

From the vantage point of the United States or Western Europe, the 1970s was a time of troubles: economic “stagflation,” political scandal, and global turmoil. Yet from an international perspective it was a seminal decade, one that brought the reintegration of the world after the great divisions of the mid-twentieth century. It was the 1970s that introduced the world to the phenomenon of “globalization,” as networks of interdependence bound peoples and societies in new and original ways.

The 1970s saw the breakdown of the postwar economic order and the advent of floating currencies and free capital movements. Non-state actors rose to prominence while the authority of the superpowers diminished. Transnational issues such as environmental protection, population control, and human rights attracted unprecedented attention. The decade transformed international politics, ending the era of bipolarity and launching two great revolutions that would have repercussions in the twenty-first century: the Iranian theocratic revolution and the Chinese market revolution.

The Shock of the Global examines the large-scale structural upheaval of the 1970s by transcending the standard frameworks of national borders and superpower relations. It reveals for the first time an international system in the throes of enduring transformations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674061866
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	281,282
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School.

Charles S. Maier is Leverett Saltonstall Research Professor of History at Harvard University. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has written a number of award-winning books, including Recasting Bourgeois Europe, The Unmasterable Past, Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany, and Once Within Borders.

Erez Manela is Professor of History, Harvard University.

Daniel Sargent is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jeremy Adelman is Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor of Spanish Civilization and Culture, Princeton University.

Thomas Borstelmann is Elwood N. and Katherine Thompson Distinguished Professor of Modern World History, University of Nebraska.

Matthew Connelly is Professor of History, Columbia University.

Francis J. Gavin is Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.

Louis Hyman is Associate at McKinsey & Company.

Ayesha Jalal is Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University.

Stephen Kotkin is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Princeton University.

Mark Atwood Lawrence is Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin.

J. R. McNeill is University Professor in the Department of History and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Michael Cotey Morgan is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina.

Lien-Hang T. Nguyen is Assistant Professor of History, University of Kentucky.

Jocelyn Olcott is Associate Professor of History at Duke University.

Vernie Oliveiro is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, Harvard University.

Andrew Preston is University Lecturer in History and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University.

Alan M. Taylor is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis.

Rebecca J. Sheehan is Lecturer in US History at the University of Sydney.

Glenda Sluga is Professor of International History, University of Sydney.

Jeremi Suri is Mack Brown Distinguished Professor for Global Leadership, History, and Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Odd Arne Westad is Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. A fellow of the British Academy, he is the author of Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750 and The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, which won the Bancroft Prize.

What People are Saying About This

Thomas Alan Schwartz

This volume is remarkable for uniformly strong essays and the cohesiveness of its argument that the 1970s were a distinctive era, and that the key to understanding the decade is the concept of globalization. Thought-provoking and consistently interesting, this book should have a very broad audience among both scholars and general readers alike.
— Thomas Alan Schwartz, author of Lyndon Johnson and Europe

Akira Iriye

A stellar group of authors tackles the transformation of the world in the 1970s, showing how the decade should be seen as ushering in the contemporary global age. Ranging from the end of U.S. economic hegemony to the rise of environmentalism, from the rise of China to the growing influence of Islam, from transnational business transactions to human rights, this book carefully examines the 'shock' of globalization and makes a major contribution to international history.
— Akira Iriye, author of China and Japan in the Global Setting

Melvyn P. Leffler

An illuminating book that provides a new way to look at the international history of the 1970s. It redirects our attention away from the familiar narrative and instead places the decade in a new perspective that allows us to evaluate longer-term trends, including the evolution of global society, the dynamics of the international economy, the breakup of colonial empires, the impact of popular culture, and the declining realm for autonomous national choices. This superb work will be greeted with enthusiasm.

— Melvyn P. Leffler, author of For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War

Editorial Reviews

A serious and impressive in-depth study of an unjustly neglected decade.

The Age - Bill Perrett

An illuminating book that provides a new way to look at the international history of the 1970s. It redirects our attention away from the familiar narrative and instead places the decade in a new perspective that allows us to evaluate longer-term trends, including the evolution of global society, the dynamics of the international economy, the breakup of colonial empires, the impact of popular culture, and the declining realm for autonomous national choices. This superb work will be greeted with enthusiasm.

Melvyn P. Leffler

A grab-bag of lively academic essays that covers everything from the proliferation of global non-government organizations to the worldwide women's rights movement to smallpox eradication.

Foreign Policy - Christian Caryl

[A] masterful book.

Michael Case

A stellar group of authors tackles the transformation of the world in the 1970s, showing how the decade should be seen as ushering in the contemporary global age. Ranging from the end of U.S. economic hegemony to the rise of environmentalism, from the rise of China to the growing influence of Islam, from transnational business transactions to human rights, this book carefully examines the 'shock' of globalization and makes a major contribution to international history.

Akira Iriye

This volume is remarkable for uniformly strong essays and the cohesiveness of its argument that the 1970s were a distinctive era, and that the key to understanding the decade is the concept of globalization. Thought-provoking and consistently interesting, this book should have a very broad audience among both scholars and general readers alike.

Thomas Alan Schwartz

[A] masterful book.--Michael Case "Irish Times" (4/5/2010 12:00:00 AM)

A grab-bag of lively academic essays that covers everything from the proliferation of global non-government organizations to the worldwide women's rights movement to smallpox eradication.--Christian Caryl "Foreign Policy" (6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)

A serious and impressive in-depth study of an unjustly neglected decade.--Bill Perrett "The Age" (4/24/2010 12:00:00 AM)

A stellar group of authors tackles the transformation of the world in the 1970s, showing how the decade should be seen as ushering in the contemporary global age. Ranging from the end of U.S. economic hegemony to the rise of environmentalism, from the rise of China to the growing influence of Islam, from transnational business transactions to human rights, this book carefully examines the 'shock' of globalization and makes a major contribution to international history.--Akira Iriye, author of China and Japan in the Global Setting

An illuminating book that provides a new way to look at the international history of the 1970s. It redirects our attention away from the familiar narrative and instead places the decade in a new perspective that allows us to evaluate longer-term trends, including the evolution of global society, the dynamics of the international economy, the breakup of colonial empires, the impact of popular culture, and the declining realm for autonomous national choices. This superb work will be greeted with enthusiasm.--Melvyn P. Leffler, author of For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War

This volume is remarkable for uniformly strong essays and the cohesiveness of its argument that the 1970s were a distinctive era, and that the key to understanding the decade is the concept of globalization. Thought-provoking and consistently interesting, this book should have a very broad audience among both scholars and general readers alike.--Thomas Alan Schwartz, author of Lyndon Johnson and Europe

From the Publisher

A grab-bag of lively academic essays that covers everything from the proliferation of global non-government organizations to the worldwide women's rights movement to smallpox eradication.
— Christian Caryl

Foreign Policy

A serious and impressive in-depth study of an unjustly neglected decade.
— Bill Perrett

The Age

[A] masterful book.
— Michael Case

Irish Times