Book description
From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Dark Continent and
Hitler's Empire, comes a visionary, far-reaching history of
two centuries of international government that also goes to the heart
of current world crises.
In 1815 the shocked and exhausted victors of the decades of fighting
that had engulfed Europe for a generation agreed to a new system for
keeping the peace. Instead of independent states changing sides, doing
deals and betraying one another, a new, collegial 'Concert of Europe'
would ensure that the brutal chaos of the Napoleonic Wars never
happened again.
Mark Mazower's remarkable new book recreates two centuries of
international government - the struggle to spread values and build
institutions to bring order to an anarchic and dangerous state system.
It shows how what started as a European story became the framework for
today's world, as free traders, communists and nationalists all put
forward their own radical visions of international harmony.
Reviews:
'A significant contribution to historical scholarship ... Simply for
giving us this lucid account, Mazower deserves our gratitude. But
Governing the World is also an intriguing read because of the
strong argument he places within it ... This new work certainly gave
this reviewer an awful lot to think about - to an author, there may be
no greater praise than that' Paul Kennedy, Financial Times
'This is a book that needed to be written ... [Governing the
World] is truly illuminating ... The story is a fascinating one,
and Mazower tells it with authority and verve' Adam Zamoyski,
Literary Review
'Mazower has strengthened his claim to be the preeminent historian
of a generation. Combining breathtaking originality with meticulous
and gloriously eclectic research, he offers the most convincing
explanation yet articulated ... On rare occasions, a work of history
emerges that not only fundamentally refashions our understanding of
the past, it enables us to reassess the present and, with luck,
influence our future. I advise everyone who is concerned about our
precarious situation to learn from and absorb Mazower's remarkable
achievement' Misha Glenny
'Bursting with ideas about present and future as well as past'
Stephen Howe, Independent BOOKS OF THE YEAR
'A prodigious work: a master historian's reconstruction of how
individuals and nations since 1815 have sought to promote national
interests in ever more complicated international settings. A dramatic,
novel account of ideas and institutions in collision with hard
realities. Indispensable also for its full and subtle account of
American policies since 1917, always with a fine touch for the
hitherto neglected person or little noticed moment that illuminates
historic processes. Profound, relevant, and morally instructive - and
a pleasure to read' Fritz Stern
About the author:
Mark Mazower is Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies and
Professor of History Professor of History at Columbia University. He
is the author of Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation,
1941-44, Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, The
Balkans: A Short History (which won the Wolfson Prize for
History), Salonica: City of Ghosts (which won both the Duff
Cooper Prize and the Runciman Award) and Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule
in Occupied Europe. He has also taught at Birkbeck College,
University of London, Sussex University and Princeton. He lives in New York.
Mark Mazower is Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies and
Professor of History Professor of History at Columbia University. He is
the author of
Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-44
,
Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century
,
The Balkans: A Short History
(which won the Wolfson Prize for History),
Salonica: City of Ghosts
(which won both the Duff Cooper Prize and the Runciman Award) and
Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe
. He has also taught at Birkbeck College, University of London, Sussex
University and Princeton. He lives in New York.
