A Brief History of Now : The Past and Present of Global Power

Exploring the rise and fall of global power from the mid-nineteenth century, this book tracks the long and interrelated trajectories of the most serious challenges facing the world today. Although at first the urgency of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 seemed to take precedence over other global problems such as socioeconomic inequality and climate change, it has ultimately exacerbated these issues and created opportunities to address them boldly and innovatively. A Brief History of Now provides a bird’s-eye view of world hegemony, economic globalization and political regimes as they have evolved and developed over the last two hundred years, providing context and insights into the forces which have shaped the Western world. Presented in an accessible and engaging narrative, the book addresses key contemporary challenges and explores the repercussions of a technological revolution, the potential instability of democracy over the coming years, and the urgent struggle to tackle climate change. With his book, Diego Olstein helps to answer pressing questions about our world today and provides a roadmap for analysing future trajectories. Acknowledgments 6 Praise for A Brief History of Now 7 Contents 11 List of Illustrations 15 List of Tables 18 1 Introduction: Setting the Frame 19 Now 19 Economic Globalization 24 World Hegemony 26 Democracy 27 Socioeconomic Inequality Within and Between Societies 30 Technological Innovations 35 Climate Change 37 Now and then: Trajectories in Global History 38 2 We Were All Brits (1851–1914) 42 Hegemony, What Is It? 42 Industrial Revolution 44 Which Pyramid? 45 The Industrial “Gradualution” 47 Democratic Revolution 48 The Synergic Revolutions 49 Non-Identical Twins 50 An Experiment with Synergy 53 Another Set of Twins: Free Tradeand Comparative Advantage 54 Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: At Home in Western Europe 58 Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: Playing “Catch-22” with Gunpowder Empires 58 Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour and the American Divergence 69 Two Sets of Twins on a World Tour: The Scramble for Africa 76 First Globalization and Britannization 81 Spoiling the Hegemonic Party: The Exceptional Outliers 85 All Aboard! Welcome to the Global Train 90 3 Until the “Big Brexit” (1914–1945) 95 A Globally Convoluted Interplay 95 Contested Hegemony, Head-On 97 A Bigger Brother 101 A Strange Couple 102 A Global Communist Revolution 104 Surprising Success 106 By Reaction Against 108 Directly Guided 109 By Imitation 111 Failure, the Mother of Improvisation 113 The Carousel of Revolution 115 The Other Carousel: Reaction 117 A World Safe for Democracy 121 It’s the Economy, Stupid! 124 A Game Changer 126 Second Round 128 So Long to the Global Train! 131 4 When We Became Americans (1946–1973) 134 The World Series 134 Hegemony and Empire: Great Britain 136 Hegemony and Empire: The United States 139 Two Centuries at Odds—And Counting 145 A Fourfold Big Stick 151 A Huge Carrot Named the U.S. Economy 153 An Alluring Dream Named the American Dream 159 The Swirling Synergy of the American Triplets 161 Great Britain: 20—United States: 34. A Different Model for World Hegemony 163 5 Or Else (1946–1973) 172 A Very Straightforward Global Story for a Very Straightforward Answer 172 From War to War to Cold War 175 On the Right Side of the World Hegemon 182 On the Wrong Side of the Counter-Hegemon 189 The Soviet Union and China 192 The Counter-Hegemonic Triplets: Powerful, but not as Much 197 Under the Tracks of Entwined Nationalismand Socialism: Perón, Evita, and the Socialist Fatherland 200 Entwined Nationalismand Socialism Throughout the Latin American Oligarchic Republics 203 Entwined Nationalismand Socialism in Recently Emancipated Colonies Throughout the Middle East 206 Straightforward: From Decolonization into Entwined Nationalismand Socialism in South Asia, South East Asia, and Africa 210 Entwined Nationalismand Socialism Around the World: The Global Rise of Anti-Hegemonic Party States 215 Pyramids into Diamonds 217 6 All Together Now: Becoming Global Citizens (1968–2003) 228 The Revolutionary Processes (1968–1991): E Pluribus Unum (One Out of Many) 228 1968, A Global Revolt 231 1973, The Yom Kippur or Ramadan War 239 1978, Deng Xiaoping Means “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” 243 1982, Malvinas/Falkland Islands War 246 1985, Gorbachev Means Glasnostand Perestroika 249 1989, A Global Revolution 252 1991, Hegemony and Globalization Reconciled 257 Everything Falling into Place 261 The Revolutionary Results: Neoliberal Reforms, Stronger Than Revolutions 265 NeoliberalismMeans Growing Inequalities: The “Great Bifurcation” 268 From Melting Pot to Salad Bowl 275 Third Wave of Democracy 279 7 Falling Apart. Back to Nationalism (2003–2020) 289 Hegemony and Globalization Reconciled but Spiraling Down 289 Shaken American World Hegemony 292 2007 Shaken Neoliberal Globalization 305 Neoliberalism Challenged Around the World 313 A Couple of Trump Cards: Technological and Ecological Disruptions 326 8 The Big Picture: Overall Patterns Amidst Convoluted Developments 344 A Brief Recapitulation of Convoluted Developments 344 Overall Patterns: Fivefold Correspondences 345 Overall Patterns and Some of the Questions of the Present and Future 355 Global Trajectories Crystalized in Global Regimes 361 Index 368 Exploring the rise and fall of global power from the mid-nineteenth century, this book tracks the long and interrelated trajectories of the most serious challenges facing the world today. Although at first the urgency of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 seemed to take precedence over other global problems such as socioeconomic inequality and climate change, it has ultimately exacerbated these issues and created opportunities to address them boldly and innovatively. A Brief History of Now provides a bird's-eye view of world hegemony, economic globalization and political regimes as they have evolved and developed over the last two hundred years, providing context and insights into the forces which have shaped our contemporary world. Presented in an accessible and engaging narrative, the book addresses key contemporary challenges and explores the repercussions of a technological revolution, the potential instability of democracy over the coming years, and the urgent struggle to tackle climate change. With his book, Diego Olstein helps to answer pressing questions about our world today and provides a roadmap for analysing future trajectories