To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change

(Hardback)

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By squeezing seven centuries and five continents between two covers, the book tracks the transition from one world order to the nextfrom the Iberian, British, American, and Chineseexplaining how the quest for a profitable form of energy led to the persistence of slavery for 400 years and how the discovery of fossil fuels simultaneously ended slavery and started carbon emissions that now threaten the current world order.

For a younger generation born at the start of this century, the book explains how climate change and changing world orders will shape their opportunities during the decades that will serve as the signposts of their lives2030, 2050, 2070, and 2100.

For activists concerned about issues of race and social justice, the book explains the rise of the African slave trade as the critical element in the extraordinary profitability and persistence of the colonial sugar plantation, making coerced, captive labor a central feature of modern capitalism for over four centuries.

Reviews

"An ambitious effort to discern patterns in the rise and fall of world empires.... McCoys account is compelling...with many provocative observations on world history and its present twists."Kirkus

"ToGovern the Globeis a brilliant distillation of 700 years of geopolitics, exposing how we arrived where we are, amidst the worsening climate crisis and collapsing world orders. Al McCoys eloquently written book is a call to action for us all, as time still remains to prevent an unprecedented cascade of catastrophes."Amy Goodman, host of "Democracy Now!"

"McCoy is one of the most eminent scholars in the world on the abuse of power and authority, on surveillance and repression, on the historical evolution of state-sanctioned torture in the US and elsewhere, and, more recently, on the rapidly declining state of the US empire. McCoys latest book To Govern the Globe is a formidable work of scholarship spanning an incredible arc of world history. 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 that is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying. The books scope is so massive that only a scholar of McCoys skill could even consider attempting to capture it. McCoys meticulous understanding of the past and present failures and excesses of empires gives him the rare credibility to offer a detailed, damning picture of the grim realities humankind faces as history transforms into our future. After reading To Govern the Globe, however, I must conclude that embedded within McCoys book is a ray of hope demanding to be seen by us all before its truly too late.Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalists and author of Blackwater andDirty Wars

McCoys argument is meticulously footnoted and his sobering conclusions appear firmly grounded in data. The past may not be the best predictor of the future, but as McCoy notes, the past remains our best means of understanding the present and our only viable guide to the future.California Review of Books

"To Govern the Globe ... offers a kaleidoscopic and timely analysis of the present U.S. decline, contextualizing it among a succession of empires and world orders across the past millennium." Counterpunch

"To Govern the Globe can be read as a clarion call to take action." The Arts Fuse

"A fascinating look at the rise and fall of empires and what it means for world orders. From colonial exploitation and capitalist ravaging of people and planet to arms racing and warfare, Alfred McCoy offers a deep dive into how this history has led to the climate crisis, and the impacts it will have on our future."Ray Acheson, disarmament program director at the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom

In an age where most scholars concentrate on a limited specialty, no one sees a bigger picture more brilliantly than Alfred McCoy. In this powerful, enlightening, and frightening book he gives us a magisterial view of the empires of the pastand of the force in our future which promises to dwarf them all.Adam Hochschild, author ofKing Leopold's Ghost

"To Govern the Globeis history on an epic scale -- sweeping, provocative, and unsparing in its judgments. Alfred McCoy's immensely readable narrative spans centuries, charting the rise and fall of successive world orders down to our own present moment shaped by China's emergence as a great power and the blight of climate change."Andrew Bacevich, author ofAfter the Apocalypse: America's Role in a World Transformed

"Its hard to believe a book spanning seven centuries could be so timely. Yet, Alfred McCoys probing and original study links the fate of multiple empiresincluding Pax Americanato the all-too-relevant histories of protracted war, brutal exploitation, and catastrophic medical, environmental, and demographic crises."Christian G. Appy, author ofAmerican Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity

Author Bio

Alfred McCoy holds the Harrington Chair in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is author of The Politics of Heroin, the classic study of drug trafficking that the CIA tried to suppress, and In the Shadows of the American Century.