Turbulent Empires: A History of Global Capitalism since 1945

This ambitious book by historian Mason (Global Shift), who has taught at universities in Canada, Nigeria, and Britain, chronicles the post-WWII ascent of global capitalism. The first chapter, “The American Leviathan,” epitomizes Mason’s informative, if sometimes scattershot, approach. Arguing that the roots of postwar global capitalism lie in America’s export of neoliberalism via cultural and military hegemony, Mason surveys U.S. influence around the world. He posits that American capitalism, standing atop the ashes of communism at the dawn of the 1990s, promised stability but delivered chaos. In subsequent chapters, he discusses examples of globalization shifting growth from West to East and bringing new investments to the southern hemisphere while accelerating inequality and sowing political unrest. Populism-wracked governments in the Americas and Europe then delved back into empire-building, while China and the Asian Tiger economies cooled off and the Middle East and Africa plunged into the violence of Islamic extremism. Mason’s prose is lively, but the book lacks a clear central argument. Instead, he relies on the general theme of unintended chaos to link together his view of the new world economy. The individual chapters are stronger than the work as a whole. (Apr.)