Global History

For decades, the Navy has stood sentinel over crucial waterways, ensuring safe passage of goods from nearly all nations. The result is the longest phase of peace on the waters since the Phoenicians, with rising living standards, more (total) jobs, and the dramatic decline of poverty in Asia. But these prosperous times could be at an end. Today China is building warships at an extraordinary pace. India, Japan, Vietnam, and Europe are responding with more fighting ships. What will result from China’s rising naval might, particularly in the South China Sea?

The Secret Life of Science is a dispatch from the frontlines of modern science. It paints a startling picture of a complex scientific ecosystem that has become the most competitive free-market environment on the planet. It reveals how big this ecosystem really is, what motivates its participants, and who reaps the rewards.

Here eminent food historian Jeffrey M. Pilcher narrates the brewing traditions and contemporary production of beer across Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America—from the fermented beverages of precapitalist societies to the present. Unique local products, often homebrewed by women, were transformed into homogenous global commodities as giant brewing factories exported their beers using new refrigeration technology, railroads, and steamships.

The Dedollarisation Paradigm: Rethinking Global Financial Systems In an age of profound economic transformation, the world is witnessing a fundamental shift away from the once unassailable dominance of the United States dollar (USD) in global finance. The pages of history are being rewritten as nations, economies, and financial institutions grapple with the challenges and opportunities of dedollarisation. "The Dedollarisation Paradigm: Rethinking Global Financial Systems" offers an insightful and comprehensive exploration of this paradigm shift. In this groundbreaking book, we embark on a ...

From Berlin to Moscow, Seoul to Hiroshima, the Philippines to Israel, Prisoners of History gives a bold new account of the way the world reacted in the wake of World War Two. Amongst many questions, the book asks: why is Russia still building victory monuments at a prolific rate for a war now 70 years over? Why, despite loathing his legacy, does the town of Mussolini’s final resting place still honour his tomb like a shrine? Why does a bronze statue in Seoul of a young girl with a bird on her shoulder cause such controversy?

In Light of Yesterday takes the listener on a journey to better understand the events that have shaped the global economy. In Light of Yesterday is a must listen for anyone wishing to gain a deeper understanding of today’s global economic landscape, and provides insight into the question, “What can be done today, in light of yesterday, to prepare for tomorrow”?

When you work in foreign environments, it can seem like the principles for getting things done are blown out of the water. How do you accomplish your mission? And get home safe? Save Your Ammo is a practical guide to working with people from other cultures.

The Great Gatsby meets A Game of Thrones in the One Hundred Years of War series. ONE MISTAKE IS ALL IT TAKES TO CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY. It’s 1973. Oil wars, terrorist attacks, Watergate... Senator Temple has his hands full, maneuvering political turmoil at home and the powder keg that is the Middle East. His mistake allows a criminal businessman to seize control of the world’s energy sector. Powerful oil dynasties—the Kingsleys, the Sheppards, and the Barronses—could help Temple fix things, but greed and old grudges threaten the alliance. Three families, their fates ...

COWARDICE WEARS MANY MASKS—OF LOYALTY, OF RATIONALITY, AND OFTEN OF CLEMENCY. The twenty-first century is around the corner. bin Laden’s fatwa, the dot-com bubble, an impeachment drama in the U.S. Capitol. Temple, former American president, cannot die before setting right the biggest mistake of his political life. His chosen heir, Lilah, knows the oil network should not continue to exist, but her allies come with many motives. Not all want her to win. Harry, her former lover, works desperately to hold their army together, but some recoil at the thought of what lies ahead. The price of ...

Bytes and Bullets is an analytically rich account of how technology is upending global competition. Through engaging stories and original research, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Steven Feldstein shows how the West’s dominance is being undercut at every turn by commercialization, China's growing capabilities, and new regional powers building their own spheres of influence. He offers eye-opening insights from modern conflicts and proposes concrete strategies that democracies must adopt in order to maintain control.

In this innovative and compelling work of environmental history, Philipp Blom chronicles the great climate crisis of the 1600s, a crisis that would transform the entire social and political fabric of Europe. While hints of a crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, by the end of the 16th century the temperature plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbours were covered with ice, birds literally dropped out of the sky and ‘frost fairs’ were erected on a frozen Thames - with kiosks, taverns and even brothels that became a semipermanent part of the city.

Hong Kong was an experiment in governance. Handed back to China in 1997 after 156 years of British rule, it was meant to be a carve-out between hostile systems: a bridge between communism and capitalism, authoritarianism and liberal democracy. “One country, two systems” kept its media free, its courts independent and its protests boisterous, designed also to convince Taiwan of a peaceful solution to Beijing’s desire for reunification. In Among the Braves, Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin tell the story of Hong Kong’s past.

The Wake Up Call examines the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack when Hamas and Gaza terrorists breached Israel's borders, brutally murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others. This attack marked the worst security breach in Israel’s history. “10.7” ignited a global surge of antisemitism, spreading across university campuses and city streets worldwide.

The book is about the exploitation of the natural energy resources in the Ogaden Basin by foreigners without the consent of the Somali Region's indigenous inhabitants. The exploitation started over a century ago and continues to the present day. The scramble for the geological resources in the Ogaden Basin, the consequent menace and how to repair the damage resulting from the scramble are the main topics of the book. The history section details the history of the scramble and its consequences for the Somali Region, for the Horn of Africa and for world peace. Recommended remediation measures...

Calais-born Olivier Le Vasseur aka La Buse is infamous for his 1721 attack on a Portuguese ship docked at Bourbon (modern day Réunion), the island where he eventually met his fate on the gallows in 1730. The raid yielded one of the most spectacular treasure hauls in the recorded history of piracy. The value of the plunder taken - and a fabled incident that occurred on the day La Buse was hanged - have led to enduring claims about the supposed buried treasure of this ill-fated pirate. The recorded facts of Le Vasseur’s life – and their importance in debunking the legend- are the subject...

Despite more than 50 years of research, however, our global society has yet to find real solutions to the problem of global warming. Why? In Behind the Curve, Joshua Howe attempts to answer this question. He explores the history of global warming from its roots as a scientific curiosity to its place at the center of international environmental politics. The audiobook follows the story of rising CO2 through a number of historical contexts, highlighting the relationships among scientists, environmentalists, and politicians as those relationships changed over time.

There is no single theory of what caused the Great Depression and never will be, Morris argues. Macreconomics is a social science, and such a massive event always takes its shape from a terrible confluence of factors. The mismanagement of the gold standard, the growth in consumer credit, the insistence on deflation, and the inability of the major European belligerents of World War I to agree on a reconstruction agenda are just a few of the shocks that pushed the world into an economic Armageddon.

Triffin’s Dilemma: Why Economic Power Always Ends in Collapse is a gripping deep dive into the structural flaw at the core of every global currency system. From ancient empires to the modern dollar-based order, this meticulously researched narrative exposes a repeating pattern: monetary dominance leads to overreach, overreach leads to fragility, and collapse follows. It’s not ideology—it’s math. Named after economist Robert Triffin, the dilemma explains why any nation issuing the world’s reserve currency must eventually undermine its own economic foundation. The book tracks this ...

Wildfires have been part of the American landscape for thousands of years. Forests need fire—it's as necessary to their well-being as soil and sunlight. But some fires burn out of control, destroying everything and everyone in their path.

Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, the promise and peril of a technological and communications revolution: these forces shaped the life and work of Joseph Conrad at the dawn of the 20th century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization as we recognize it today.