The Shock of the Global

An illuminating book that provides a new way to look at the international history of the 1970s. It redirects our attention away from the familiar narrative and instead places the decade in a new perspective that allows us to evaluate longer-term trends, including the evolution of global society, the dynamics of the international economy, the breakup of colonial empires, the impact of popular culture, and the declining realm for autonomous national choices. This superb work will be greeted with enthusiasm. -- Melvyn P. Leffler, author of For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War This volume is remarkable for uniformly strong essays and the cohesiveness of its argument that the 1970s were a distinctive era, and that the key to understanding the decade is the concept of globalization. Thought-provoking and consistently interesting, this book should have a very broad audience among both scholars and general readers alike. -- Thomas Alan Schwartz, author of Lyndon Johnson and Europe A stellar group of authors tackles the transformation of the world in the 1970s, showing how the decade should be seen as ushering in the contemporary global age. Ranging from the end of U.S. economic hegemony to the rise of environmentalism, from the rise of China to the growing influence of Islam, from transnational business transactions to human rights, this book carefully examines the 'shock' of globalization and makes a major contribution to international history. -- Akira Iriye, author of China and Japan in the Global Setting

From the vantage point of the United States or Western Europe, the 1970s was a time of troubles: economic 'stagflation,' political scandal, and global turmoil. This title examines the large-scale structural upheaval of the 1970s by transcending the standard frameworks of national borders and superpower relations.

From the vantage point of the United States or Western Europe, the 1970s was a time of troubles: economic “stagflation,” political scandal, and global turmoil. Yet from an international perspective it was a seminal decade, one that brought the reintegration of the world after the great divisions of the mid-twentieth century. It was the 1970s that introduced the world to the phenomenon of “globalization,” as networks of interdependence bound peoples and societies in new and original ways.

The 1970s saw the breakdown of the postwar economic order and the advent of floating currencies and free capital movements. Non-state actors rose to prominence while the authority of the superpowers diminished. Transnational issues such as environmental protection, population control, and human rights attracted unprecedented attention. The decade transformed international politics, ending the era of bipolarity and launching two great revolutions that would have repercussions in the twenty-first century: the Iranian theocratic revolution and the Chinese market revolution.

The Shock of the Global examines the large-scale structural upheaval of the 1970s by transcending the standard frameworks of national borders and superpower relations. It reveals for the first time an international system in the throes of enduring transformations.