Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028539
BOOK
BOOK by Alfred McCoy
BOOK: In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power
BOOK by Alfred McCoy
BOOK: In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power
Original article: https://tomdispatch.com/books/in-the-shadows-of-the-american-century-the-rise-and-decline-of-u-s-global-power/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I find it interesting to compare what I think I know with what American writers tell me.
From my perspective, a lot of American writers tend to align with my own thinking around the recent history ... say the last 50 years!
Our view tend to diverge with regard to the period prior to WWII as well as the war years, and then the post-war years to around 1980.
I am probably biased ... as much of writing about history is biased. Certainly my perspective as a British observer, is very different from that of most Americans.
I am reasonably comfortable with the idea that both my British view and the American's American view are both correct and both have their limits!
In recent years ... when I have been in my 60s, 70s and now 80s ... I have concluded that most of what I know has actually changed substantially over time. That is, my view and understanding of all sorts of events and issues has changed over time. Maybe it is an increasde in my wisdom, or perhaps more likely something to do with my cognitive decline.
In any event ... it is food for thought!
Peter Burgess
By Alfred McCoy
In a completely original analysis, prize-winning historian Alfred W. McCoy explores America’s rise as a world power—from the 1890s through the Cold War—and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century through a fusion of cyberwar, space warfare, trade pacts, and military alliances. McCoy then analyzes the marquee instruments of US hegemony—covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and worldwide surveillance.
Peeling back layers of secrecy, McCoy exposes a military and economic battle for global domination fought in the shadows, largely unknown to those outside the highest rungs of power. Can the United States extend the “American Century” or will China guide the globe for the next hundred years? McCoy devotes his final chapter to these questions, boldly laying out a series of scenarios that could lead to the end of Washington’s world domination by 2030.
Alfred W. McCoy, a TomDispatch regular, is the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.
His most recent book is To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change (Dispatch Books).
His next book, Cold War on Five Continents: The Geopolitics of Empire & Espionage, will be out in December.