Governing the World

Governing the World

The History of an Idea

Summary

The compelling and provocative history of world government, from acclaimed author Mark Mazower

Shortlisted for the RUSI 2013 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military Literature

In 1815 the shocked and exhausted victors of the decades of fighting that had engulfed Europe for a generation agreed to a new system for keeping the peace. Instead of independent states changing sides, doing deals and betraying one another, a new, collegial 'Concert of Europe' would ensure that the brutal chaos of the Napoleonic Wars never happened again.

Mark Mazower's remarkable new book recreates two centuries of international government - the struggle to spread values and build institutions to bring order to an anarchic and dangerous state system.

Reviews

  • Mazower has strengthened his claim to be the preeminent historian of a generation ... On rare occasions, a work of history emerges that not only fundamentally refashions our understanding of the past, it enables us to reassess the present and, with luck, influence our future. I advise everyone who is concerned about our precarious situation to learn from and absorb Mazower's remarkable achievement
    Misha Glenny

About the author

Mark Mazower

Mark Mazower is Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University where he directs the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. His previous books include Inside Hitler's Greece, Dark Continent, The Balkans and Salonica, City of Ghosts.
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