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The Deluge: The Great War, America And The Remaking Of The Global Order, 1916-1931

A bold new interpretation of the First World War and the birth of the American Century In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no end to the conflict in sight, societies around the world began to buckle. The strain of total war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, shattering old empires and redrawing maps across Europe and the Middle East. A century after the outbreak of fighting, Yale historian Adam Tooze takes an entirely new perspective on “the war to end all wars,” focusing on the closing years of the conflict and its aftermath up to the Great Depression. This tumultuous period saw hopes for lasting peace and liberal internationalism collide with violent upheavals and the ultimate rise of totalitarian regimes. And it saw the emergence of a new global order in which all the major powers—the war’s winners and losers alike—saw their fates bound up with those of the United States, now the world’s dominant economic force. All-embracing, powerfully argued, and deeply instructive, The Deluge is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the roots of America’s fraught relationship with the world.

Paperback: 672 pages

Publisher: Penguin Books (December 1, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0143127977

ISBN-13: 978-0143127970

Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.6 x 8.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #64,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #89 in Books > History > Military > World War I #115 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > European #189 in Books > Business & Money > Biography & History > Economic History

First, a comment or two on the negative reviews. The negative comments have two point- first, that the book is poorly written and edited and 2. that it is unoriginal in content.As to the first, I can only disagree. I read nothing but scholarly nonfiction and, while Tooze is not a great writer, he is a fine writer of history.I did not find that it could have been a much shorter book either. He is covering a lot of territory and he tries to do it justice. The only real problem I had with the editing occurs with Figure 3 on page 357. I have no idea what the Y axis represents. If anyone knows, please leave an explanation in the comments.As for the content, while I am no expert in this period of history, I found the content to be original and fascinating. Americans of a certain age were told that Wilson tried to change what wars were fought for and how the international community would handle conflict in the aftermath of WW1. Tooze's story is more complicated, nuanced and believable.Tooze's basic theme is the recasting of American power in the aftermath of WW1. America through its military, economic and cultural strength(by which I mean the appeal of Wilsonianism) was able to provincialize (Tooze's ugly word) Europe. America was economically able to veto or render impotent many of the governmental policies of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, China and Russia. The fact that there was real differences of opinion between the Congress and the Presidents (Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover) which made it difficult for the other powers to know what to expect from the U.S. in terms of consistent policy made it that much harder for any of them to know what to do.

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