Book contents
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I Ordering a World of States
- 1 Global Capitalist Infrastructure and US Power
- 2 Overseas Bases and the Expansion of US Military Presence
- 3 The Consolidation of the Nuclear Age
- 4 American Knowledge of the World
- 5 The American Construction of the Communist Threat
- 6 The Fractured World of the Cold War
- 7 The US and the United Nations System
- 8 American Development Aid, Decolonization, and the Cold War
- 9 Decolonization and US Intervention in Asia
- Part II Challenging a World of States
- Part III New World Disorder?
- Index
1 - Global Capitalist Infrastructure and US Power
from Part I - Ordering a World of States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2021
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- The Cambridge History of America and the World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume IV
- General Introduction: What is America and the World?
- Introduction to Volume IV
- Part I Ordering a World of States
- 1 Global Capitalist Infrastructure and US Power
- 2 Overseas Bases and the Expansion of US Military Presence
- 3 The Consolidation of the Nuclear Age
- 4 American Knowledge of the World
- 5 The American Construction of the Communist Threat
- 6 The Fractured World of the Cold War
- 7 The US and the United Nations System
- 8 American Development Aid, Decolonization, and the Cold War
- 9 Decolonization and US Intervention in Asia
- Part II Challenging a World of States
- Part III New World Disorder?
- Index
Summary
America’s rise to global political power for much of the twentieth century was accompanied by – arguably even predicated on – its ascent to economic predominance. Replacing Britain globally and Germany and Japan as regional economic powers, this gradual changing of the guard marked a profound transformation of global capitalism. Aside from quantitative differences in the size of economies, volumes of trade, and the like, perhaps the clearest contrast between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ US-dominated regime was that the twentieth century saw an unprecedented proliferation of institutions designed to manage, or ‘govern’ global capitalism. Indeed, the United States in particular benefited from these institutions since, as the preeminent power involved in setting up such capitalist infrastructure after 1945, it was able to shape their design, influence staffing, and otherwise exert power.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of America and the World , pp. 31 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022