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An engaging and original historical portrait of eight of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century: Woodrow Wilson, Lenin, Hitler, Churchill, FDR, Gandhi, David Ben-Gurion, and Mao.The Titans of the Twentieth Century addresses an age-old question: what is the impact of individuals on history? The first half of the twentieth century offered political leaders enormous scope for changing the world. This book consists of essays about eight who, for better and for worse, did just that.Woodrow Wilson had a vision for a cooperative world order that failed after the First World War but gained in influence after the Second.Vladimir Ilich Lenin founded the totalitarian communist political system that controlled a large part of the planet for much of the twentieth century.Adolf Hitler started history's worst war and presided over history's worst atrocity, the Holocaust.Winston Churchill provided inspiring leadership to Great Britain, which made it possible to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II.Franklin D. Roosevelt steered the United States through the Great Depression and the Second World War.Mohandas Gandhi led the movement, and developed the philosophy of non-violence, that ended British rule in South Asia, paving the way for the end of empires throughout Asia and Africa.David Ben-Gurion led the miraculous restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.Mao Zedong, imposed totalitarian communist rule on China and became history's most egregious mass murderer.Individually, each chapter offers fresh and often surprising portraits of the twentieth century's titans. Collectively, the essays present a vivid and revealing portrait of a turbulent half-century that shaped the world of today

Michael Mandelbaum's 'The Titans of the Twentieth Century' provides a unique window into the political forces that shaped the twentieth century and laid the groundwork for the twenty-first. Written by one of the most eminent international relations scholars, it offers mini-biographies of eight of the most influential political figures and details their impact on world history.

In 'The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy', the eminent authority on American foreign policy Michael Mandelbaum offers a new framework for understanding the history of the foreign policy of the United States. He divides that history into four distinct periods, each of them defined by the consistent increase in the power the country has had at its disposal in its relations with other countries.

In 'The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth', Michael Mandelbaum examines the peaceful quarter century after the end of the Cold War. He describes how the period came about and why it ended, arguing that individual countries overturned peaceful, political, and military arrangements in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, thereby affecting the rest of the world. He also probes prospects for the revival of peace in the future and stresses the importance of democracy and civil liberties across borders.

"In Mission Failure, Mandelbaum argues that, in the past 25 years, U.S. foreign policy has undergone a significant shift. Historically, U.S. foreign policy was oriented primarily toward threat reduction, but the U.S. military has turned in recent years to missions that are largely humanitarian and socio-political. Mandelbaum argues that ideologically-driven foreign policy--that which seeks to reconstruct societies along Western lines--generally leads to mission failure"--

Intro -- Dedication -- Acknowledgments -- Epigraph -- Introduction -- Chapter One: The Roof -- The Three Pillars of Stability -- Major War -- The World's Policeman -- The Factory Manager -- The Future of International Cooperation -- Chapter Two: The Gates -- Creative Destruction -- The Politics of Trade -- The Asian Giants -- Human Traffic -- The Smell of Money -- Chapter Three: The River -- Money and Its Discontents -- A Drinking Binge, a Heart Attack, and the Flu -- An Ounce of Prevention -- Euro Troubles -- The Decline of the West -- Chapter Four: The Brics -- The Building Blocks of the Future -- Brazil: The Perils of Populism -- Russia: The Resource Curse -- India: The Dysfunctions of Democracy -- China: The Limitations of Autocracy -- Conclusion: Fault Lines -- About the Author -- Notes -- Index -- Copyright.

The tyranny of numbers -- A new era -- Entitlements -- Foreign policy limits -- Two the novelty of scarcity -- The arc of American foreign policy -- The limits of American decline -- The world's government -- Adaptation to scarcity -- The seat belt effect -- The end of intervention -- The limits of cooperation -- The return of great-power politics? -- The global security order -- China -- Russia -- The heart of geopolitics -- The Middle East -- Oil -- The new containment