The Sources of Social Power
Volume: 3 Global Empires and Revolution, 1890–1945
Cambridge University Press
2012
Distinguishing four sources of power – ideological, economic, military
and political – this series traces their interrelations throughout human
history. This third volume of Michael Mann's analytical history of
social power begins with nineteenth-century global empires and continues
with a global history of the twentieth century up to 1945. Mann focuses
on the interrelated development of capitalism, nation-states and
empires. Volume 3 discusses the 'Great Divergence' between the fortunes
of the West and the rest of the world; the self-destruction of European
and Japanese power in two world wars; the Great Depression; the rise of
American and Soviet power; the rivalry between capitalism, socialism and
fascism; and the triumph of a reformed and democratic capitalism.
The Sources of Social Power
Volume: 4 Globalizations, 1945–2011
Cambridge University Press
2013
Distinguishing four sources of power – ideological, economic, military
and political – this series traces their interrelations throughout human
history. This fourth volume covers the period from 1945 to the present,
focusing on the three major pillars of post-war global order:
capitalism, the nation-state system and the sole remaining empire of the
world, the United States. In the course of this period, capitalism,
nation-states and empires interacted with one another and were
transformed. Mann's key argument is that globalization is not just a
single process, because there are globalizations of all four sources of
social power, each of which has a different rhythm of development.
Topics include the rise and beginnings of decline of the American
Empire, the fall or transformation of communism (respectively, the
Soviet Union and China), the shift from neo-Keynesianism to
neoliberalism, and the three great crises emerging in this period –
nuclear weapons, the great recession and climate change.
