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Carole Fink, Anthony D'Agostino. The Rise of Global Powers: International Politics in the Era of the World Wars., The American Historical Review, Volume 118, Issue 5, December 2013, Pages 1493–1494, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/118.5.1493
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In this dense, vibrant volume, Anthony D'Agostino examines the transition from Europe's global dominance to the emergence of the United States and the USSR as superpowers after World War II. Although the book lacks a bibliography, its footnotes refer to an impressive range of primary and secondary sources in several languages, and its ten maps help to clarify major points. Along with examining the key political and economic elements, D'Agostino works with a far longer time line than traditional analyses of the period between 1914 and 1945, and he integrates ideas and ideology into his narrative. His focus on “the mysteries of alignment” “not at all straightforward, never mechanistic, nor even always logical” (p. 3) poses a challenge to realists and balance-of-power theorists, and his emphasis on “tracing the webs of historical connection” (p. 5) deftly links events in far-flung regions.
Essentially divided into three parts, the book begins in the late nineteenth century when Britain, the world's dominant power, was faced with rivals such as France, Russia, the United States, and especially Germany. As a result of a “chain of revolutionary events across the world island” (p. 48) from Asia to North Africa to the Balkans, the British not only forged an alliance with Japan but also adhered to the Triple Entente, making the outbreak of World War I almost inevitable. This global conflict did not end in a decisive victory over the Reich but in a “ragged peace” (p. 112). Although Britain made major gains in Eurasia, it was also left with a shattered economy, a powerful creditor and naval rival in the United States, restive colonies, and a European peace threatened both by French insecurity and by German revisionism.
