To Govern the Globe
- Author Alfred W. McCoy
- Narrator Dan Woren
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Run Time 15 hours and 42 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Anthropology, Environmental policy and protocols, General and world history, Human geography, Human rights, civil rights, Political science and theory, Social and cultural anthropology, Social classes, Social forecasting, future studies, Society and culture: general.
Titles Purchased
- 1-5
- 6-10
- 11-15
- 16-20
- Over 20
Price p/Title
- €9.95
- €8.95
- €7.95
- €6.95
- €5.95
Listen to a sample
What to expect
In a tempestuous narrative that sweeps across five continents and seven centuries, this book explains how a succession of catastrophes—from the devastating Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050—has produced a relentless succession of rising empires and fading world orders.
During the long centuries of Iberian and British imperial rule, the quest for new forms of energy led to the development of the colonial sugar plantation as a uniquely profitable kind of commerce. In a time when issues of race and social justice have arisen with pressing urgency, the book explains how the plantation’s extraordinary profitability relied on a production system that literally worked the slaves to death, creating an insatiable appetite for new captives that made the African slave trade a central feature of modern capitalism for over four centuries.
After surveying past centuries roiled by imperial wars, national revolutions, and the struggle for human rights, the closing chapters use those hard-won insights to peer through the present and into the future.
By rendering often-opaque environmental science in lucid prose, the book explains how climate change and changing world orders will shape the life opportunities for younger generations, born at the start of this century, during the coming decades that will serve as the signposts of their lives—2030, 2050, 2070, and beyond.
Critics Review
-
“A magisterial view of the empires of the past—and of the force in our future which promises to dwarf them all.”
Adam Hochschild, New York Times bestselling author -
“A formidable work of scholarship…Yet it is a gripping and fast-paced read that manages to distill the complex history of the rise and fall of world empires into a gripping narrative.”
Jeremy Scahill, New York Times bestselling author -
“History on an epic scale…McCoy’s immensely readable narrative spans centuries, charting the rise and fall of successive world orders down to our own present moment.”
Andrew Bacevich, New York Times bestselling author -
“McCoy’s argument is meticulously footnoted and his sobering conclusions appear firmly grounded in data.”
California Review of Books -
“An ambitious effort to discern patterns in the rise and fall of world empires…McCoy’s account is compelling…with many provocative observations on world history and its present twists.”
Kirkus Reviews -
“A brilliant distillation of seven hundred years of geopolitics…A call to action for us all, as time still remains to prevent an unprecedented cascade of catastrophes.”
Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!
More from the same
Narrator
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.