ABSTRACT
A key hypothesis of this book is that the ongoing era from 1970-2007 may be in some important regards similar to the liberal epoch of 1870-1914. The 44-year-long liberal epoch a century ago was characterised on one hand by the second Industrial Revolution, free trade, free movement of capital and rapid globalisation; and on the other hand, by nationalism, freedom of sovereign powers to use violence, new imperialism, imperialist wars, worsening trade conflicts within and without the capitalist core (albeit still in the context of relatively free trade) and social turbulence in Europe as well as in many colonies and China. We also know the dramatic outcome of those processes: the First World War.
