For quarter-/semester-long advanced courses in Contemporary World History.
This brief text stresses the profound global transformation that has occurred since 1945 as a result of the collapse of the remaining great colonial empires, and the emergence of nation-states throughout the world. Its thematic emphasis makes clear as well the importance of the Cold War in influencing the process by which these nation-states sought to create new ideals and new institutions—to insure order and justice within their boundaries, and find places within the international community. The book also links the new nation-states in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with the ethnic conflicts, local wars, and terrorist movements that became increasingly prevalent toward the end of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary, Dates Worth Remembering, and Recommended Reading.)
1. Toward the Second Twentieth Century: The Second World War.
The Empires of Germany and Japan.
The Alliance Against the Axis.
The Fall of the German and Japanese Empires.
HIGHLIGHT: Internationalism.
SPOTLIGHT: John Maynard Keynes.
2. The Cold War and the End of Western Empires, 1945-1950.
Postwar Europe.
HIGHLIGHT: Containment and Anti-Communism.
The Cold War in the West.
SPOTLIGHT: Eleni Gatzoyiannis.
The Cold War in Asia.
3. Recovery in East Revolutions and Asia, 1950-1990.
Communist China.
SPOTLIGHT: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
HIGHLIGHT: Revolution and Command Economies.
War and Revolution in Indochina.
Japan’s Recovery from Defect.
4. New Nations in South Asia.
The New Island Republics.
SPOTLIGHT: Sukarno.
Independence for India and Pakistan.
HIGHLIGHT: New Nations and Ethnic Strife.
India and Pakistan as Nation-States.
5. Africa and Latin America in the Third World.
Africa’s Liberation from Colonialism.
SPOTLIGHT: Nelson Mandela.
Latin America in the Cold War.
HIGHLIGHT: The Third World.
Democracy in Latin America.
6. Nations at War in the Middle East.
Israel and the Middle East.
SPOTLIGHT: Golda Meir.
Nation-Building and Petroleum.
War, Peace, and Islam.
HIGHLIGHT: Islam and Nation-States.
7. The Cold War and the Fall of the Soviet Empire, 1953-1991.
European Nations and European Union.
The Soviet Union and the Cold War.
HIGHLIGHT: The Cold War in Outer Space.
The Fall of the Soviet Empire.
SPOTLIGHT: Andrei Sakharov.
8. Local Wars, Global Economy: The World after The Cold War.
The Emergence of the Global Economy.
HIGHLIGHT: The Global Environment.
Local Wars and Peacekeeping.
Terrorism and Local Wars.
SPOTLIGHT: Osama bin Laden
Focus on the history of civil and local wars and terrorist movements in Inner Asia and the Middle East—Culminating in U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the 2003 war in Iraq.
~ Gives students a perspective on the current situation in Iraq.
Highlight essay—“Islam and Nation States.”
~ Calls students attention to the issue of Islam in modern Muslim societies.
Four Spotlight essays—Highlight important individual histories of Osama bin Laden; Andrei Sakharov; the Dalai Lama; and Sukarno.
Extensive discussion of the decline of fall of modern empires—Culminating in the fall of the Soviet Union.
NEW - Focus on the history of civil and local wars and terrorist movements in Inner Asia and the Middle East–Culminating in U.S. wars in Afghanistan and the 2003 war in Iraq.
~ Gives students a perspective on the current situation in Iraq.
NEW - Highlight essay–“Islam and Nation States.”
~ Calls students attention to the issue of Islam in modern Muslim societies.
NEW - Four new Spotlight essays–Highlight important individual histories of Osama bin Laden; Andrei Sakharov; the Dalai Lama; and Sukarno.
NEW - Extensive discussion of the decline of fall of modern empires–Culminating in the fall of the Soviet Union.
A thematic approach–Creates unity and emphasis on the origins, process, and consequences of a reordering of world history in the post-1945 period under impact of nation-states.
~ Explains the evolution of global conflict and cooperation from great confrontation of the Second World War to the Cold War and finally to the post Cold War era.
A world-historical perspective.
~ Allows students to see the increasing interaction among states and peoples since the close of the Second World War.
In-depth analysis of origins, impact, and outcome of Cold War on global balance of power.
~ Connects the post-Cold War international relations with the U.S.s global dominance and vulnerability to terrorism.
Highlight and Spotlight essays throughout.
~ Enables students to focus on a key issue and significant biographical history.