A World Connecting: 1870�1945 ed. by Emily S. Rosenberg (review)

• Autores: Daniel R. Headrick
• Localización: Technology and Culture, ISSN-e 1097-3729, Vol. 54, Nº. 4, 2013, págs. 985-986
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Every age rediscovers the past in its own light. Since the end of the cold war, we have become obsessed with globalization. It is not surprising, then, that a book about world history from 1870 to 1945 would stress that period�s global interconnectedness and modernity instead of the great power rivalries, world wars, depression, and totalitarianism that occupy most other books.

    To achieve this goal, the editor, Emily Rosenberg, has chosen five authors to write essays on different aspects of the period, each one almost book length. For the reader familiar with the chronology of important events such as wars, revolutions, and technological innovations, these essays complete the picture presented in more traditional world histories. For those without that level of knowledge, however, they will seem disjointed and confusing.

    In �Leviathan 2.0: Inventing Modern Statehood,� Charles Maier discusses the emergence of modern statehood in an analytic and not always coherent manner. Needless to say, this process was wrenching for traditional polities under pressure from the commercial and military might of the Western powers and their new political ideologies. Despite occasional tangents to China, Japan, and Latin America, the essay�s perspective is very Western-centric.