To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change by Alfred W. McCoy


To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change
Title : To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Language : English
Format Type : Kindle Edition
Number of Pages : 621
Publication : Published November 16, 2021

In a tempestuous narrative that sweeps across five continents and seven centuries, this book explains how a succession of catastrophes—from the devastating Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050—has produced a relentless succession of rising empires and fading world orders. During the long centuries of Iberian and British imperial rule, the quest for new forms of energy led to the development of the colonial sugar plantation as a uniquely profitable kind of commerce. In a time when issues of race and social justice have arisen with pressing urgency, the book explains how the plantation’s extraordinary profitability relied on a production system that literally worked the slaves to death, creating an insatiable appetite for new captives that made the African slave trade a central feature of modern capitalism for over four centuries. After surveying past centuries roiled by imperial wars, national revolutions, and the struggle for human rights, the closing chapters use those hard-won insights to peer through the present and into the future.  By rendering often-opaque environmental science in lucid prose, the book explains how climate change and changing world orders will shape the life opportunities for younger generations, born at the start of this century, during the coming decades that will serve as the signposts of their lives—2030, 2050, 2070, and beyond.

To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change Reviews

  • Reading

    Mr. McCoy has outdone his previous books with this masterful, compelling and exceptional overview of empire and world... order.

    The reader is provided a summation of the major geopolitical influences, technological innovations and consequences of previous empires, with an emphasis on domination and control of resources & populations, transport advances & areas of control, and broad governance choices. No doubt a fair amount of detail is left out BUT this is by necessity so that the reader can be provided a historical overview from which to examine our present circumstances and understand potential future trends.

    Noticeably absent from the survey is any sort of bias or judgement and sparse offers of remedies. While I absolutely appreciate this it did contribute to leaving me a bit less than inspired that humanity will... make it, at least in any recognizable form of social organization. But that's OK - OK not that we might not make it, though on a purely philosophical level I'm OK with that. What I mean by OK is that the author leaves it to the reader to look elsewhere for answers on how to confront the crisis or determine... blame and instead the book focuses on providing context and broad lessons to reflect on. This choice to present the material dispassionately, and I do believe he succeeds, insures that this book is accessable to a wider audience. You can recommend this to your Trump loving, QAnon believing cousin or your Antifa, black block supporting niece and both will find common ground.

    Alas, in addition to feeling incredibly empowered by the knowledge gained from reading this book, upon completion I also felt a strong desire to shout Private First Class William L. Hudson's iconic line from Aliens - "Game over man!".

    And yet I hope that you will read it and like me, be motivated, nay inspired to use the information you glean to seek out proposals and policies to bring about change and join others to prevent 'game over' or at least insure that the rules of said game change for the betterment of all. Let's build a better world on the common ground/knowledge of the mistakes that got us here but nurtured by the roots of what draws us together in need - livable environment, safe shelter and community purpose.

  • Mazen

    علي الرغم المركزية الأوروبية التي ينطلق منها الكتاب بمحاولته تصوير أن تاريخ العالم كله مجرد هوامش موجودة في صفحات مغامرات الأوروبيين، إلا أن الكاتب يشرح بنوع من الاستفاضة كيف تكونت ثلاث من النظم العالمية غطت قارات الكوكب أجمع بنظام شبه الجزيرة شبه الجزيرة الإيبيرية، ثم النظام العالمي البريطاني، ثم الأميركي الذي نعيش مراحل أفوله، يبدأ الكتاب بسرد مفهوم النظام العالمي و كيف لإمبراطورية أن تقوم بحفظ الأمن و تزيد من تراكم ثروات الإمبراطورية و كيف تم هذا عبر التحكم بالبحار و المضايق البحرية الضيقة و ما هي أبرز تحديات هذه النظم. سرد الكاتب بزوغ فكرة العبودية و كيف أن الكنسية الكاثوليكية ساهمت بنوع من التشجيع علي الابادات الجماعية و الرق لشعوب الأمريكيتين، و السود من أفريقيا، و دور بريطانيا الاستثنائي بعد اكتشاف طاقة الفخم و البخار في القضاء علي تِلك التجارة البشعة. مَر الكتاب علي تحديات تواجه امريكا حالياً من الصين بسبب بزوغ اقتصادها العملاق بشكل أسي محيّر و مواجهة امريكا في بحرها الجنوبي و قدرتها علي تشكيل قوات بحرية حقيقية ممكن أن تحيد انتشار امريكا في المحيط الهادئ، و عن أزمة المناخ التي طالت الكوكب كله بسبب السعار الرأسمالي الاستهلاكي القائم علي الربح الذي حول الأرض لساونا عملاقة ممكن أن تمحي اشكال عملاقة من الحياة في ظرف 50 سنة.

  • Jessica Zu

    still quite eurocentric, top-down solution kinda thing. but the information is so rich.

  • Sugarpunksattack Mick

    Alfred W. McCoy is a brilliant thinker and has had an incredible career exposing US malfeasance, however, his book 'To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change' unfortunately fails short of his normal contribution. McCoy sets out to outline the three global orders--the Iberian, the British, the US age--that ruled in their time and to warn about the emerging (possible) fourth global order ruled by China and the environmental cataclysm. McCoy's narrative tracing the long history and rise and fall of the first two global orders of the Iberian age and the British age is absolutely worth reading and is the lion share of the book. What I find strange is that he provides a good overview of these global orders as a historical narrative, but his critical framework--which he barely mentions or employs--appears to be only half thought out. The section on the US as a global empire was very short, but I also think it was sufficient for most readers who have a cursory understanding of US history. Likewise, I expected the brevity of the section on the US empire was to give ample space to an explaining how China may emerge as the fourth global empire or how climate catastrophe may stop us all. Regrettably, McCoy does little more than tease us with how China is rising and what he predicts.

  • Jeff Carpenter

    Brilliant. This should be taught in every senior High School class. In the world.

    The book analyzes successive world orders, and establishes the timelines, up through the British Empire, then the American-led hegemony, and now it’s eclipse by what he sees will be run by the Chinese. But even in that eclipse, America will try to keep asserting its former position of sole super-power, and that’s where things can go off the rails.

    In his final analysis, the Climate Crisis will change the game so that only a true unity of world powers will be able to take control.

    If we can survive that long. (my opinion)

  • Gabriel Salgado

    La elaboración de una narrativa histórica que cubra 5 siglos es, evidentemente, un proyecto pretensioso. Naturalmente, hay elementos y dinámicas que el autor deja afuera para priorizar las que él considera indivdualmente más importantes, y presenta argumentos para fundamentar su importancia.
    Algunos capítulos son menos exitosos que otros en mostrar la línea histórica que apoya, pero finalmente confluye en una predicción futura catastrófica que es posible por las mismas fuerzas que alentaron todo el desarrollo histórico: el concepto de soberanía de los estados-nación, las transiciones energéticas (del viento al carbón al petróleo a la catástrofe climática) y la noción de derechos humanos universales. A mi entender, si bien el autor dedica bastantes páginas a discutir los avances en las pretensiones universalistas de los derechos humanos, no cierra tan claramente como los otros dos desarrollos, sino que, justamente, lo introduce para realizar su propuesta de futuro.
    Está claro que no es un libro de historia, sino de interpretación histórica que busca utilizar el pasado para pensar el futuro, y cumple bien su objetivo.

  • Jason

    Interesting, but feels half-baked. The author's thesis was that empires sometimes adopt worldviews that encompass things greater than themselves: the Luso-Iberian set of empires in the 16-17C, the British Empire, and the American period of hegemony following WWII all make the grade. Each brought new ideas (the Luso-Iberian created the idea of closed seas and wrestled with human rights, for example).

    I feel like there are others out there, though. Wouldn't the Greek city-states meet the defintion? China under the Ming when they literally tried to create a world order? The author is pessimistic about America standing under the threat of a Chinese expansion. The author is smarter than I am, and makes good points, but there are lots of people who have come to believe the new Chinese Empire might be oversold.

    This is a book that I don't necessarily like, but it'll make me think. Isn't that what good books do?

  • Martin

    Alfred McCoy has written a book we need right now. I hope to write a review fairly soon, but I did interview McCoy today for a podcast episode that will be published in early March, about the decline of the U.S. and rise of China, and the coming calamities of climate change.

  • MH

    Started out as a well-written and fairly balanced history of the world order, fell apart at the end with predictions that China is going to take over and there could be sanctions on greenhouse emissions, along with an apology for causing climate change.

  • Jovany Agathe

    Very good analysis and especially the three recommendations at the end.
    Only downside is the anti-Chinese bias and the celebration of the West's dubious legacy.