The World Transformed 1945 to the Present

by Hunt, Michael H.

• ISBN13: 9780312245832
• ISBN10: 0312245831
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-10
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Through its lively and accessible narrative,The World Transformedprovides students with an account of the political, socio-economic and cultural developments that have shaped global events since 1945. The volume's focus on three central and profoundly interconnected stories the unfolding of the cold war, the growth of the international economy, and the developing world's quest for political and economic independence offers students a framework for understanding the past and making sense of the present. Attentive to overarching themes, individual historical figures, and diverse nations,The World Transformedwill find an enthusiastic reception in courses on post-1945 world history, international relations, or global concerns.

Author Biography

MICHAEL H. HUNT, Emerson Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes and teaches in the general field of international and global history. He is the author of numerous articles and prize-winning books on topics spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics in Chinese as well as U.S. history informed his early publications, while later writings, notably Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy (1987) and Lyndon Johnson's War: America's Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945-1968 (1996), focused on the role of ideas in foreign relations and on the Cold War in Asia. These were written with research support from such major sources as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Program for Advanced Study and Research in China, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Hunt has played a leading role in the global history program within his department at Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

    Preface
    Introduction: The 1945 Watershed
    International Politics Reconfigured
       Wilson and Lenin as Rival Visionaries
       World War II and the Onset of the Cold War
       The Role of Nationalism
    A Global Economy in Transition
       The First Phase of Globalization Begins, 1870s-1914
       Globalization Reborn, 1945 to the Present
    The Colonial System on the Brink
       Vulnerabilities of Empire
       The Appearance of the "Third World"
    
PART I. HOPES AND FEARS CONTEND, 1945-1953
    
  1. The Cold War: Toward Soviet-American Confrontation
    Origins of the Rivalry
       From Cooperation to Conflict
       U.S. Policy in Transition
       Stalin's Pursuit of Territory and Security
       Stalin and the Postwar Settlement
    From Europe to the Periphery
       Drawing the Line in Europe
       The Nuclear Arms Race Accelerates
       Opening a Front in the Third World
       Limited War in Korea
    Superpower Societies in an Unquiet Time
       Soviet Society under Stress
       The U.S. Anti-Communist Consensus
    Conclusion
    
  2. The International Economy: Out of the Ruins
    Anglo-American Remedies for an Ailing System
       Keynesian Economics and a Design for Prosperity
       The Bretton Woods Agreements
    The U.S. Rescue Operation
       Occupation and Recovery in Japan
       Recovery in Western Europe
    The American Economic Powerhouse
       Good Times Return
       Disney and the U.S. Economic Edge
       "Coca-colonization" and the Mass Consumption Model
       European Resistance to "Americanization"
    Conclusion
    
  3. The Third World: First Tremors in Asia
    The Appeal of Revolution and the Strong State
       The Chinese Communist Triumph
       Vietnam's Revolutionary Struggle
    New States under Conservative Elites
       India's Status-quo Independence
       The Collaborative Impulse in the Philippines
    Conclusion
    
PART II. THE COLD WAR SYSTEM UNDER STRESS, 1953-1968
    
  4. The Cold War: A Tenuous Accommodation
    The Beginnings of Coexistence
       Khrushchev under Pressure
       Crosscurrents in American Policy
    Crisis Points
       To the Nuclear Brink in Cuba
       The Vietnam Quagmire
    The Quake of ‘68
       The American Epicenter
       The Ground Shifts Abroad
    Conclusion
    
  5. Abundance and Discontent in the Developed World
    America at Apogee
       Triumphant at Home and Abroad
       Warning Signs of Economic Troubles
    Recovery in Western Europe and Japan
       The Old World's New Course
       Fiat and Europe's Corporate Aristocracy
       The Second Japanese Miracle
    Voices of Discontent
       The New Environmentalism
       The Feminist Upsurge
       Critics of Global Economic Inequalities
    Conclusion
    
  6. Third World Hopes at High Tide
    Revolutionary Trajectories in East Asia
       The Maoist Experiment in China
       Vietnam's Fight for the South
    The Caribbean Basin: Between Reaction and Revolution
       Guatemala's "Ten Years of Spring"
       Cuba and the Revolution that Survived
    Decolonization at High Tide in Sub-Saharan Africa
       Ghana and Nkrumah's African Socialism
       Colonial Legacies in Ghana and Beyond
    Remaking North Africa and the Middle East
       Economic Nationalism in Iran
       A New Order for Egypt and the Region
       Colonial Crisis in Algeria
    Conclusion
    
PART III. FROM COLD WAR TO GLOBALIZATION, 1968-1991
    
  7. The Cold War comes to a Close
    The Rise and Fall of Détente
       The Nixon Policy Turnaround
       The Breshnev Era
       Western Europe and Détente
       The U.S. Retreat from Détente
    The Gorbachev Initiatives
       Glasnost, Perestroika, and a New Foreign Policy
       The Demise of the Soviet System
    Explaining the Cold War Outcome
       The Role of Leaders
       Impersonal Forces
    Conclusion
    
  8. Global Markets: One System, Three Centers
    The United States and the North American Bloc
       The Erosion of U.S. Dominance
       The Free Market Faith
    The Rise of an East Asian Bloc
       Japan Stays on Course
       The "Little Dragons" in Japan's Shadow
       Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics
       Vietnam in China's Footsteps
    Revived Bloc Building in Europe
       Renewed Integration and the E.U.
       Social and Cultural Developments
       Post-‘89 and the Opening to the East
    Conclusion
    
  9. Divergent Paths in the Third World
    The Changing Face of Revolution
       Cambodia's Genocidal Revolution
       Religious Challenge in Iran
       Revolutionary Aftershock in the Middle East
    Opposition to Settler Colonialism
       South African Apartheid under Siege
       Conflict over Palestine
       Repression and Resistance in Guatemala
    Dreams of Development in Disarray
       Stalemated Economies
       The Population Explosion
       Women and Development
    Conclusion
    
    Conclusion: Globalization Ascendant, The 1990s and Beyond
    The Perils and Possibilities of Globalization
       Environmental Stresses
       One World or Two?
       An Emerging International Regime
    Globalization as U.S. Hegemony?
       "The American Century"
       Playing the Global Policeman
       Resistance Abroad
    
    Index