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The Making of the Contemporary World

About the Book Series

The Making of the Contemporary World series provides accessible interpretations of contemporary issues and debates within strongly defined historical frameworks. The range of the series is global, with each volume drawing together material from a range of disciplines - including economics, politics and sociology. The books in this series present compact, indispensable introductions for students studying the modern world.

28 Series Titles


China and the World since 1945 An International History

China and the World since 1945: An International History

2nd Edition

By Chi-kwan Mark
April 07, 2025

Now in its second edition, China and the World since 1945 offers an accessible introduction to China’s foreign policy and diplomatic history across a broad chronology. After the ‘century of humiliation’, China was in constant search of a new identity on the world stage, which significantly changed ...

International Economic Relations since 1945

International Economic Relations since 1945

2nd Edition

By Catherine R. Schenk
June 17, 2021

This second edition has been updated to include an assessment of economic relations up to the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on three main threads that tie national economies together: flows of goods, of people and of finance. Since the end of the Second World War, the international economy ...

Thatcher and Thatcherism

Thatcher and Thatcherism

4th Edition

By Eric J. Evans
July 09, 2018

This revised, expanded and updated fourth edition of Thatcher and Thatcherism examines the origins and impact of ‘Thatcherism’ both as a cultural construct and an economic creed from the 1970s to the formation of a coalition government in 2010. New to this edition is an extended exploration of ...

War and Warfare since 1945

War and Warfare since 1945

1st Edition

By Sterling Pavelec
August 07, 2017

Beginning with an exploration into the question of what war is, War and Warfare since 1945 provides a chronological analysis of military history since the end of World War II extending through to an analysis of the limits of modern warfare in the nuclear age with the purpose of examining why war ...

Strategic Intelligence in the Cold War and Beyond

Strategic Intelligence in the Cold War and Beyond

1st Edition

By Jefferson Adams
September 03, 2014

Strategic Intelligence in the Cold War and Beyond looks at the many events, personalities, and controversies in the field of intelligence and espionage since the end of World War II. A crucial but often neglected topic, strategic intelligence took on added significance during the protracted ...

Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945

Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945

2nd Edition

By Beverley Milton-Edwards
September 30, 2013

Featuring a brand new examination of Islamic fundamentalism in the wake of the Arab Spring, this fully revised and updated second edition of Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945 analyzes the roots and emergence of Islamic movements in the modern world and the main thinkers that inspired them. ...

Genocide since 1945

Genocide since 1945

1st Edition

By Philip Spencer
August 04, 2012

In 1948 the United Nations passed the Genocide Convention. The international community was now obligated to prevent or halt what had hitherto, in Winston Churchill’s words, been a "crime without a name", and to punish the perpetrators. Since then, however, genocide has recurred repeatedly. Millions...

Environmentalism since 1945

Environmentalism since 1945

1st Edition

By Gary Haq, Alistair Paul
October 31, 2011

Today environmental issues are part of daily life, a feature of the modern world almost everyone now recognises. Contemporary environmentalism has promoted a way of speaking and thinking about the environment that was not possible or imaginable decades ago. Environmentalism Since 1945 provides a ...

The Extreme Right in Europe

The Extreme Right in Europe

1st Edition

By Paul Hainsworth
April 11, 2008

The Extreme Right in Western Europe is a concise introduction to one of the most persistent facets of late twentieth-century history, politics and society. The legacy of the Nazi era and the increasingly unacceptable face of extremism all militated against the success of far right-wing parties ...

Southern Africa

Southern Africa

1st Edition

By Jonathan Farley
March 12, 2008

Southern Africa surveys the contemporary history of the whole region encompassing economic, social, political, security, foreign policy, health, environmental and gender issues in one short succinct volume. Positioning the collapse of Portugal’s African Empire in the context of the region’s ...

Conflicts in the Middle East since 1945

Conflicts in the Middle East since 1945

3rd Edition

By Peter Hinchcliffe, Beverley Milton-Edwards
September 28, 2007

This third edition of Conflicts in the Middle East since 1945 analyzes the nature of conflict in the Middle East, with its racial, ethnic, political, cultural, religious and economic factors. Throughout the book Peter Hinchcliffe and Beverley Milton-Edwards put the main conflicts into their wider ...

US Foreign Policy since 1945

US Foreign Policy since 1945

2nd Edition

By Alan Dobson, Alan Dobson, Steve Marsh, Steve Marsh
September 06, 2006

US Foreign Policy since 1945 is an essential introduction to postwar US foreign policy. It combines chronologic and thematic chapters to provide an historical account of US policy and to explore key questions about its design, control and effects.   New features of this second edition ...

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