Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Intro
Ch 1 Pax Americana
Part I Reaching Backward
Ch 2 In Pursuit of Primacy
Ch 3 Geopolitics and Humanitarianism
Ch 4 The Dollar in Decline
Ch 5 Oil Shocked
Part II Stumbling Forward
Ch 6 Managing Interdependence
Ch 7 Human Rights and Detente
Ch 8 World Olrder Politics
Ch 9 The Revenge of Geopolitics
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Daniel J. Sargent is Assistant Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-editor of The Shock of the Global: The International History of the 1970s.

Reviews

"This is an exceptionally thorough and eloquent history, of relevance not merely
to historians of U.S. foreign relations but to scholars of international history, human
rights, and globalization. The book maps the foundational moment when the contours
of the 21st century came into being at a staccato, haphazard cadence. The sheer
difficulty of assessing this reordering of the world, which was largely bereft of design and dominated by contingency and accident, is daunting. Sargent's contribution will be a lodestar for future treatments of the period The book is remarkably bold in ambition and still more remarkable for its successful execution."--Journal of Cold War Studies
"Deeply researched and well-written, Sargent's analysis contributes to the argument that the seventies was a crucial era in which the chaotic and challenging contemporary world emerged, and in which the 'sole superpower' is powerful, yet unable to succeed consistently."-- CHOICE
"Daniel Sargent's comprehensive assessment of Nixon, Ford, and Carter foreign policies integrates geopolitical, economic, and human rights issues with such skill that it now must be the starting point for all future scholarship on that era. A major accomplishment by a talented young historian."--John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University
"Daniel Sargent's new book goes a long way toward illuminating the course of the Cold War and the U.S. engagement with globalization. Deeply researched and wonderfully well written, A Superpower Transformed blends world politics and international economics to explain the momentous changes in 1970s U.S. foreign relations. This is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of America's place in the world today."--Thomas ("Tim") Borstelmann, author
of The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality
"Daniel Sargent's book shows how the 'Cold War order' imploded during the 1970s, as rapid globalization shaped a new era of unpredictability, fragmentation, and improvised policies. With its deep research, fresh interpretations, beautiful writing, and tight focus on questions of how power is exercised, A Superpower Transformed is a work of major importance."--Emily S. Rosenberg, author of Transnational Currents in a Shrinking World, 1870-1945
"Ambitious in its design, capacious in its coverage, this eloquent and nuanced analysis will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the origins of the contemporary era."--Matthew J. Connelly, Columbia University
"Sargent's book is also highly relevant today, as it demonstrates the challenges of policy making in turbulent and changing times."--The Journal of American History
"Sargent writes eloquently, comprehensively, and persuasively about the limits of power in a pluralizing, chaotic, interdependent world."--American Historical Review