Reddit reviews The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000

I can think of a few

• Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" - WHY and how whole empires fall
  
  
• Niall Ferguson's "The Ascent of Money" - How money rules the world - here's how.
  
  
• Jarred Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" - his thesis might not be entirely correct - but it's a VERY fair look at how our history was influenced by these factors.
  
  
• Bruce Bueno De Mesquita's - "The Predictioneer's Game" - - How quantitative models are SCARILY accurate
  
  
• Emanuel Derman's "Models Behaving Badly" - And how sometimes quantitative models are totally wrong.
  
  
• Paul Roberts - "The End of Oil" - Probably the most serious and balanced read on what could be one of the most important economic problems facing our modern civilization in the next 20 years.
  
  
• Frank & Cook's "Winner Take All Society" - and why things are a problem.
  
  
• Richard Florida's "The Great Reset" - Florida is a pretty good author all around - far better than some others in the pitch.
  
  
• James Bamford's amazing "Body of Secrets" - Not all our enemies are external, and sometimes our allies turn out to actually be thuggish & deadly enemies.
  
  
• Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" - Nobody here is exactly as they appear.
  
  
• Carl Sagan's "A Demon Haunted World"
  
  
• Robin Marantz Henig's "A Monk in the Garden" - Yeah - the priest that proved Darwin's theory, in 1865.....oh yeah and he invented statistics along the way.
  
  
• Brian Sykes' "The seven Daughters of Eve"
  
  
• Douglas Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas" - Every page is practically amazing - a collection of amazing old articles from Dr. H's work
  
  
• Kristina Borjesson's edit of "Into the Buzzsaw" - the hard truth about a couple of things in the US media
  
  
• Richard Dawkins' "Climbing Mount Improbable" - a great work about such an amazing idea.
  
  
• Kim Sterelny's "Dawkins vs. Gould" - this is a REAL debate about evolution!
  

I may have completely missed part of the discussion, but has anyone recommended Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0679720197

It seems like the quintessential book for the overarching topic.

I would pay extra taxes to buy all policymakers a copy of this book.

Try The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Paul Kennedy. It was writen in the early 80's before the fall of the soviet union so it has some dated world views, but it offers a great narrative of how the world power structure we know today evolved over the centuries from the 1500's.

The Raise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0679720197/

I'm not all that up to date on modern military theory since most of my knowledge is from military history and not contemporary theory (although the two are, as one would expect, highly intersectional) - I do read some modern war journals and listen to talks on modern war theory though, although relatively rarely.

I'm hardly an expert on the matter (although I'm fairly certain know enough to recognize when someone has no idea what they are talking about). I just read a lot in college, and sucked up whatever I could from the library. I also liked reading a lot of primary sources, including things like reports from field exersises/war games/intel reports/naval excercises. One time I even read the entire

One of my favourites was this book on inter-war German reforms during the Weimar era. Rise and Fall of the Great Powers is another favourite of mine (although I never got to read the whole thing, it's a fucking massive book and I never had the time so) - it's especially good if you want to see some of the economic factors of warfare and tracking them through history. Clausewitz' On War is a classic primer on military and is practically ubiquotous - but it's also old as fuck and is far more important for showing some of the roots of modern (in the broad sense of Victorian/post-Victorian, not 21st century) - treat it like you would The Wealth of Nations.

You clearly have read none of actual academic scholarship written on the war. Hollywood and your intutions is not a good guide to these events. Historical scholarship takes this aid into account when assessing the war and still concludes that Germany could not have defeated Russia. It had too much strategic depth, industrial capacity (Even without aid) and manpower. It would likely have been even bloodier than it was, but it still would have been won by the Russians. However, without the Russians it would not have been possible to defeat Germany. Period.

This is a good breakdown of the war sin the USA.

https://www.quora.com/Could-World-War-II-have-been-won-without-the-United-States

For some good starting books, go here:

https://www.amazon.com/Second-World-Wars-Global-Conflict/dp/0465066984

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/0679720197

Edit: Lol "Commie bs"? Nothing could describe me less than Communist. But I've studied the period extensively and the facts are the facts, no matter how much it upsets Americans and us Brits who've built our national identity on defeating Germany alone.

It is a book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0679720197

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/0679720197

In there somewhere.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of Great Powers is so good I have read it twice.

Check "The rise and fall of the great powers" by Paul Kennedy. http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/0679720197

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/0679720197

I read this as a freshman in college. Its a good starting point. Feel free to skim the many charts and graphs and just stay with the narrative. Very comprehensive

>the Obama administration wants to know from Afghan leaders:

>the usa any administration wants to know from any leaders:

Hooo cow-boy - the times when foreign "leaders" had to be vetted by the usa'n $ interests is OVER.

Prepare instead to face your creditors .. while you can, if you can.

See - 1988 Paul KENNEDY "The rise and fall of the great powers"

http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Great-Powers/dp/0679720197

> military "over-stretch" and a concomitant relative decline are the consistent threat facing powers whose ambitions and security requirements are greater than their resource base can provide for (summarized on pages 438–9).

To me doomed USA is as clear as doomed USSR : written on the wall "mane thecel phares".
It is only waiting for a Berlin Wall-like trigger.

Wall-street burned to ashes by angry victims - bankers hanging from the light poles -- corrupt senators, judges, lobbyists and schemers skinned alive ??