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Paul M. Kennedy

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 Paperback – January 15, 1989

by Paul Kennedy (Author)

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About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.

Print length

704 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

January 15, 1989
Dimensions

5.17 x 1.2 x 7.95 inches
ISBN-10

0679720197
ISBN-13

978-0679720195
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Kennedy, a history professor at Yale, here assesses the interaction between economics and strategy over the past five centuries," reported PW , concluding that "the book is a vigorous entry in the debate over the extent to which national wealth should be used for military purposes."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Publisher : Vintage; 1st edition (January 15, 1989)
Language : English
Paperback : 704 pages
ISBN-10 : 0679720197
ISBN-13 : 978-0679720195
Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
Dimensions : 5.17 x 1.2 x 7.95 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #50,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #160 in Economic History (Books)
- #408 in International & World Politics (Books)
- #1,705 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
547 ratings

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GrouchyOldman

A book well worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2016

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In this book, Paul Kennedy is searching for a pattern to explain "the rise and fall of great powers".He studies and reports on economic and military factors that accompanied or caused previously dominant nations to lose their Great Power status. He divides the (1987) world into 5 principle actors: the US, the European Union (England, France, Germany only), the Soviet Union, China, and Japan. He discusses their economic and military strengths and weaknesses, and likely affects on their Great Power status. NOTE: This book was published in 1987, before the fall of the Soviet Union, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and before China achieved its major economic transformation by adopting (somewhat) free-market policies. Thus, one might think that this book is well past its shelf life. However, what Kennedy undertakes to do is not to report on the world as it is in 1987, but to describe historical trends far predating 1987 and ending with the state of the would-be claimants to great power status as of 1987, and to show the role of interlocking factors of economic and military strength in trying to attain or preserve Great Power status.

36 people found this helpful

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Phyllis Antebi Ph.D

The march of folly:The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2017

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The "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is a book full of interesting thoughts. I preferred to read this book not from the beginning to the end, but rather, from the end to the beginning. This book is dense, full of facts and figures, but signifying something very relevant. Today's geopolitical landscape is much more fragmented than polarized as it was when Kennedy first published his book, 1988. Still our world leaders are facing a similar set of complex variables. These variables relate to the strength of our security requirements and the rising cost of expenditures which outpace domestic growth.
If you are interested in topics with far reaching global implications, I suggest you read at least the beginning and the end of Kennedy's 550 plus page thesis. I am reminded of Dorner's book, "The Logic of Failure". In it Dorner shows us how and why complex situations generate habits of thought which set failure in motion from the beginning. History seems to repeat itself. At least both Kennedy and Dorner agree on this!

21 people found this helpful

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Pomp t carney

How super powers go up and down over time

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2015

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The aurora does an excellent job of relating how the ups and downs of great world powers are inextricably related to the economies of the large countries. There can be no rise of a great military without that country first having a booming economy. It seems then that once a booming economy is achieved it is only a natural next step that the politicians start waving the war flag that necessitates the building of a military to complement the economic successes. It almost seems a required next step though that the politicians are never satisfied until they have spent the country back into poverty from whence they had come.so it seems that economic boom followed by a big military machine which gobbles up all that excess money and constantly demands more to fight another war is the BOOM--BUST narrative that most great powers have followed. No country can remain at constantly and not break the bank and put its people back in the chains of poverty..........and that is basically what this book taught me. .... Unfortunately, I don't think the American give tinkers damn or they would stop this madness in Washington. Ps you can look at the Spanish in the 16-17 centuries to verify this case.

Thanks

Doc

16 people found this helpful

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Amazon24

Fantastic Read. Highly Recommended.

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2017

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The book is highly informative, and goes into a lot of detail explaining why some empires rise and some fall. I really enjoyed the author's take on why Europe prospered in the way it did, and how Britain's economy helped it shoulder the burdens placed on it by Napoleonic Wars.

I would say that the best way to enjoy the book would be to have a little bit of background in history first, because it does a fantastic job of answering all the questions you might have after exploring a bit of history yourself.

Easily five out of five stars.

5 people found this helpful

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Michael Griswold

Written in 1989, Still Relevant in 2016

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2016

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The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy was written in 1989 in the twilight of the Cold War. This twenty-seven year time lag that a reader in 2016 leads to make mincemeat out of some of the conclusions such as this rapid rise of Japan and the role of Europe as a potential large power (this was before the 1990s Asia financial crisis and of course the 2000s global financial crisis).

Still I think the historical trends that Kennedy traces in his almost five hundred year study are valid for modern times. In particular, the comments about failing to keep up with modern technological innovation and the notion of an overreach with great powers being drained of their economic resources because of the commitments that they have made. I think of the United States in multiple wars and committed to security throughout the world.

What we learn ultimately is that no great power can have it all, forever.

16 people found this helpful

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Meg C.

The Classic That Continues to Resonate

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020

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I'm hard-pressed to think of another book cited as often by other serious historians in this sphere of study--and for good reason. It's detail-rich, which makes for slow reading, but I've never made as many notes in margins or been as inspired to look up additional information in other texts. This quickly became my foundational reference as I approached balance of power, economic history, US-UK relations, and other historical and political topics.

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JeffS

Kennedy is excellent and appears to cover the whole topic in its ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016

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The introduction chapter by P. Kennedy is excellent and appears to cover the whole topic in its entirety. The subsequent chapters seem intended to provide case studies to further illustrate the introduction chapter's concept, but: they are too long and not as eloquent, and some of them, like the one by Condolezza Rice, - with all due respect - seem incomplete or seem to contradict themselves or both.

4 people found this helpful

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Terrence L House, MBA

Great Book!

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020

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I liked this book because the content was cohesive and the book was well-written. Very insightful!

One person found this helpful

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Online Customer

OUTDATED ..but good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2020

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It's important before purchasing this book that you know it was published in 1988 when the USSR was still in existence. A lot of the analysis described in this book is aimed at the 'present day' USSR. These views are therefore clearly outdated. Given the subject and the monumental rise of China since it's first publication, this is not an up to date account. It's an old book rehashed with a new, modern looking cover.

But the book is not bad, and given the majority of it (roughly 550 of the 700 pages) is describing events that occurred in the period from 1500 up until the Cold War, it is no different to any other history book.

So really it's a book of two halves. The first 550 or so pages give a thorough and very interesting and readable account of the rise of the great powers. This is given as a single extended narrative through the centuries rather than an individual account of each great power described in turn, which I think I might have preferred. The final 150 pages move onto 'present day' (from a 1988 perspective) and then an analysis of what might follow up to and into the 21st century. Interestingly the author does not predict the collapse of the Soviet union less than a year after this book was published, nor is the unprecedented rise of the PRC given much consideration (although to be fair these things are hinted at).

In summary, if you want an analysis of the rise and fall of the great powers from 1500 to 1988 this is a great read. If you want that to include an up to date analysis of the current balance of power or the recent rise of China you will find yourself disappointed. This book needs updating. Otherwise, if they're continuing to print it in 2020 they should remove the last couple of chapters since they're effectively a 'present day' description of the power balance from 1-2 generations ago. The world has significantly moved on since then.

3 people found this helpful

Gazza

Great Powers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2018

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For me this is a book to dip into rather than read from beginning to end. It offers a very thorough and detailed account of the rise and fall of the great powers. I bought it as I'd read about it in Ian Morris's: Why The West Rules ~ For Now, which I think is much easier to read than this book.

I hope you find my review helpful.

11 people found this helpful

Robertzb

History with a twist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2019

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Really enjoying this book. Have been a military history buff forever. This book presents world history but with the added dimension of how economic changes influenced military decisions, something that is often overlooked. I would recommend this book to any serious student of military history, it gives a new perspective to why things happened the way they did.

4 people found this helpful

steven

A broad sweep of history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2020

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The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers gives the reader less of a detailed analysis of historical Empires and more of a broad sweep of history and the great powers that populated it. Details about the driving forces which made them ascend to greatness and fall to obscurity. A fantastic book to give you a general feel of the flow of historical power politics and economic dynamics. A book which will give the reader a general reference point to explore the selected powers in greater detail via other sources

D. Schotman

One of the most important geopolitical books ever written.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (1989) is a tome of a book. In this incredible informative and influential book that must have firmly cemented the reputation of Kennedy and put him on par with the other geopolitical celebrities Huntington & Fukuyama, Kennedy is mainly addressing the relation between economics and the military. The book perfectly demonstrates how these are influencing each other constantly. Although the books is narrating the time between 1500 - 2000, the closer we get to our own age, the more detailed it gets. I think Kennedy meant to focus primarily on superpowers, and these only came into existence after roughly the year 1500. This doesn't mean that before also empires fell due to similar reasons, such as the Athenian Empire when they invaded Sicily and the Roman Empire or the Crusading States who were constantly focusing on expansion, rather than consolidating. As such it is in this book where he introduced and worked out the now popular term `Imperial Overstretch', with which he means on one hand that the fall of an empire is usually caused by too much military costs, so suppose a colony gets conquered, but it doesn't bring up the expenses it took to conquer it and on the other hand, that countries or empires can cause their own downfall by investing bigger and bigger sums of money into the army, while ignoring all others. One could argue that this is pretty much the philosophy behind the arms race between the US and Soviet Union, and that by attrition the US finally won the Cold War. However, looking to modern day US history one could argue that the US fell into that same trap with the 9/11 Wars. I particularly liked the parts about WW1 & WW2. In both occasions Kennedy is showing the strengths and weaknesses of all major players and what they need to win this war. This was especially useful in gaining a better understanding of the complex relation that existed between all the participating states that eventually fought WW1.

14 people found this helpful

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