The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

`A brilliantly original book...It is intended for the intelligent layman as well as the academic historian, combining in Toynbee-esque manner the sweeping conception with careful attention to historical detail' Financial Times

`This book is falling out of briefcases all over Washington DC, both because it looks and sounds erudite and because it purports to answer an increasingly common question: Has the United States already embarked on its journey into the sunset of empire? It is administering a lot of frissons to trend-watchers' Christopher Hitchens

`Outstanding...He ranges across five centuries and around the whole world. He seems to have read every relevant book in every possible language. And he has produced a general argument so deceptively simple that no politician, however busy, should ignore or misunderstand it' Observer

`One of the masterpieces of modern historical writing' Daily Telegraph

`A masterpiece of exposition. It is erudite and elegantly written' New Society

`A remarkable book...long, clever, often funny, and crammed with remarkable insights; it is tinged with the genius that unravels complexity' Evening Standard

`Shows a master historian's ability to use evidence like a boxing champion's uppercut' TES

`One of those rare (and irresistible) books which successfully combine the scope and sweep of `popular' history with the discriminating rigour of professional historiography, making it both a bloody good read and a thought-provoking one' Listener