The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond: An International History since 1900

Citation

Keylor, W. R. (2011). The Twentieth-Century World and Beyond: An International History since 1900 (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The sixth edition runs to about 640 pages: a prologue, twenty-two chapters in three parts, two glossaries (of international economics and of nuclear weapons terminology), a bibliography and an index. The book began in 1984 as The Twentieth Century World: An International History, a text of under 500 pages, and has grown and been extended edition by edition; this one carries the story to about 2010. The publisher describes its framework as a history of the relationships between and among countries rather than of individual national histories, covering the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, and pitches it at undergraduate and graduate courses in twentieth-century world history, international relations and international studies.

Prologue: The Global Context of International Relations at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

The world of 1900: the Europeanization of the world, the emergence of Japanese power in East Asia, the rise of American power in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific, the geopolitical worldview of a "shrinking earth", and the first age of globalization.

Chapters 1–2: Germany's Bid for European Dominance (1914–1918); The Peace of Paris and the New International Order

Part One, "The Thirty Years' War (1914–1945)", opens with the First World War, from the road to war through stalemate, Russia's exit and American intervention; then the peace settlement, examined through the aims of the "Big Four", France and Britain, the American withdrawal, Allied intervention in Russia, the making of the modern Middle East, and a verdict on Versailles.

Chapters 3–4: The Western World in the Twenties: The Era of Illusions; The Western World in the Thirties: The Illusions Dispelled

A paired account of the interwar years: the illusions of economic restoration and continental security in the 1920s, and the collapse of the world economic order and the European security system in the 1930s.

Chapter 5: Germany's Second Bid for European Dominance (1939–1945)

The Second World War in Europe and globally, from Poland and the "phony war" to Allied plans for liberated Europe, with a section on the destruction of the European Jews.

Chapters 6–7: The Confirmation of United States Supremacy in Latin America; The Rise and Fall of Japan's Supremacy in East Asia

Two regional chapters covering the same years outside Europe: American direct domination and then indirect hegemony in Latin America (1914–1945), and Japan's move from peaceful penetration to military expansion and war in Asia.

Chapters 8–10: The Formation of the Bipolar World in the Truman–Stalin Era (1945–1953); Coexistence and Confrontation (1953–1962); Détente and Multipolarity (1962–1975)

Part Two, "The Cold War between the Superpowers (1945–1985)", follows the Cold War chronologically: the division of Europe, conflicts on the periphery, the two blocs and Western rearmament; peaceful coexistence, non-alignment, the end of American invulnerability, Berlin and inter-American security; then the nuclear arms race, France's challenge to American leadership, the European settlement and the Middle East.

Chapters 11–12: The Rise of China and the Cold War in Asia; The Resurgence of East–West Tension (1975–1985)

The Chinese revolution, America's reengagement in Asia, the Sino-Soviet split, Indochina's "thirty years war" and Sino-American rapprochement; then renewed tension after 1975, the arms race, South Asia and the Middle East.

Chapters 13–15: Latin America's Quest for Development and Independence; Africa: From Independence to Dependency; The Far East: The Road to the New Co-Prosperity Sphere

Three regional chapters on the Cold War decades: containment, growth and the debt crisis in Latin America; decolonization, neo-imperialism, stagnation, the Cold War in Africa and the white settler regimes; and Japan's economic miracle, the East Asian tigers and Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China.

Chapters 16–17: Moscow, Washington, and the End of the Soviet Empire; Europe: Integration and Disintegration

Part Three, "From Cold War to New World Disorder (1985–2010)", begins with Gorbachev's reforms, the dissolution of the Eastern bloc and German reunification, the Soviet collapse and Russia's turbulent transition; then European integration alongside the Balkan wars.

Chapters 18–21: Asia at the Crossroads; Africa on Its Own: Ethnic Conflict, Autocracy, and Underdevelopment; The Middle East: The Elusive Quest for Peace, Prosperity, and Stability; Latin America: Democracy, Free Markets, and Regional Security

Regional chapters after the Cold War: East Asian growth and security dilemmas and tensions in South Asia; ethnic conflict, genocide, the end of apartheid, China's role and AIDS in Africa; the Gulf War, Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Israeli–Palestinian peace process; and democratization, the "Washington Consensus" and its collapse amid populism in Latin America.

Chapter 22: From the Old to the New Century

A thematic conclusion: international cooperation after the Cold War, management of the global economy, the mixed record of arms control, international NGOs, globalization and its discontents, and the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Key Concepts

Prologue and Part One

• Europeanization of the world: the European-centred international order of 1900 from which the narrative starts.
• The "Thirty Years' War": the book's treatment of 1914–1945 as a single period of two German bids for dominance in Europe.
• Continental security: the interwar search for a European security system, and its collapse in the 1930s.
• Hegemony in the Western Hemisphere: the shift from direct to indirect American domination of Latin America.

Part Two

• Bipolarity: the division of the world into two blocs led by the superpowers.
• Peaceful coexistence and détente: phases of reduced superpower tension.
• Non-alignment: the attempt of "Third World" states to stay outside the blocs.
• Neo-imperialism and debt: continuing economic dependence after decolonization in Africa and Latin America.

Part Three

• End of the Soviet empire: the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the USSR after Gorbachev's reforms.
• Integration and disintegration: European union alongside Balkan fragmentation.
• Washington Consensus: the free-market policy package and its retreat in Latin America.
• Globalization and its discontents: global economic integration and the reactions against it.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Genuinely international. The publisher stresses that the book follows relations among states rather than separate national histories, and the contents bear this out: Latin America, East Asia, Africa and the Middle East each receive their own chapters in every part, not only Europe and the superpowers.
• A clear periodization. The three parts (1914–1945 as one "thirty years' war", the Cold War to 1985, and the decades after) give students a structure that connects the world wars and the Cold War rather than treating them as separate subjects.
• Economics alongside diplomacy. Chapters on the collapse of the world economic order, the debt crisis, economic stagnation in Africa, the East Asian economies and the management of the global economy, plus a glossary of international economics terms, make the book useful for international political economy as well as diplomatic history.
• Teaching support. Two glossaries, including one on nuclear weapons terminology for the arms-race chapters, and a bibliography help students working through technical material.

Limitations

• Ends around 2010. The sixth edition was published in 2011; events since then, from the Arab Spring onward, are outside its scope, and its final chapter's account of globalization and of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reflects the view from that moment.
• State-centred. As an international history it concentrates on governments, diplomacy, war and economics. Social and cultural history appear only where they bear on relations among states, so students wanting a fuller world history need a companion survey.
• Long and dense. About 640 pages of narrative is more than most single-semester courses can assign, and the regional chapters within each part mean that the same years are revisited from several directions.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the twentieth-century history list, Keylor is the comprehensive textbook of international relations. Duiker's Contemporary World History is an introductory survey that integrates political, economic, social and cultural history; it is the gentler first course and supplies the domestic and social history that Keylor largely omits. McMahon's The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction is a concise overview that can preview Part Two.

For interpretation, Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes reads the "short twentieth century" from 1914 to 1991 as an age of catastrophe, a golden age and a landslide, and makes a stimulating contrast with Keylor's diplomatic periodization. Mazower's Dark Continent is an interpretive history of Europe as a contest between democracy, fascism and communism, deepening Parts One and Two for Europe, and Westad's The Global Cold War re-centres the Cold War on interventions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, an argument best read after Keylor's Chapters 8–15.

How to Use This Book

The book suits undergraduates in twentieth-century world history or international relations and graduate students who need a reference narrative. A general modern history course helps, but no specialist background is assumed.

A reading plan for one semester:

• Core: the Prologue, then Part One (Chapters 1–5) and the Cold War narrative of Part Two (Chapters 8–12). These chapters give the backbone of great-power relations from 1900 to 1985.
• Regional chapters: choose among Chapters 6–7, 13–15 and 18–21 according to the course's regional focus; each can be read as a unit with its part's chronological chapters.
• Recent history: Chapters 16–17 on the Soviet collapse and Europe, and Chapter 22 as a thematic conclusion.

Keep the two glossaries at hand for the economic and nuclear chapters, and build a timeline as you read, since the regional chapters return to the same years. For events after 2010, follow the book with a current survey or a recent edition of an international relations textbook.