How the West Lost the Peace

In 1989, the West appeared to be the lone victor of history. Today, the triumphalism of that time sounds more than stale. What went wrong?

Multi-award winning historian Philipp Ther is searching for an answer in his latest book. He deals with topics such as economic-political errors after the reunification (from escrow to Hartz IV, the German welfare system), analyses the development of the USA after the Clinton years and asks why Russia and Turkey have turned their backs on the West. Drawing on Karl Polanyi’s groundbreaking book The Great Transformation, Ther recapitulates the rapid changes of the past thirty years that had no less of a dramatic effect west of the former Iron Curtain as they did east of it.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Great Transformation after 1989
1. From Neoliberalism to Antiliberalism: The Enduring Relevance of Karl Polanyi
2. Lost Social and Political Equilibrium: The USA after the Cold War
3. The Price of Unity: Germany’s Shock Therapy in International Comparison
4. La Crisi: Italy’s Decline as a Portent for Europe
5. The West, Turkey and Russia: A History of Estrangement
6. Eastern Europe as a Pioneer: Polanyi’s Pendulum Swings to the Right
7. Systemic Competition during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Afterword: A Bad End: The War against Ukraine
Postscript and Acknowledgements
Notes

»Philipp Ther joins sound wisdom to his formidable talents as a historian in this study of Europe's alarming drift towards populism. He knows that we cannot understand politics without serious attention to economics, he understands Europe as extending from Ireland to the Pacific and beyond, and he writes beautifully. His urgently needed book is a pleasure to read, and if its subjects are often grim, the lessons Ther draws illuminate a way forward.« John Connelly, University of California, Berkeley

»Philipp Ther has written a sad but clear-eyed tribute to the ethics of Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation. His analysis of the social divisions that preceded political polarization and the spurious link between capitalism and democracy exposes the global fiasco of the West's neoliberal triumphalism.« Maria Todorova, University of Illinois

»Covering disturbing trends in Hungary and Poland, COVID, Brexit, Trump and the Ukraine war, [Philipp Ther's] observations… have a cautionary touch of Christopher Isherwood's ›I Am a Camera‹ approach, coupled with accessible, detailed analysis.« Sydney Morning Herald

»The present after the Cold War looks different from what those blinded by triumph but also the intelligent reformers had expected. Philipp Ther explores the question of what went wrong in six chapters. They belong among the most interesting of the many recent diagnoses of the times.« Jens Bisky, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»A book that makes us understand how we sight of peace.« Swantje Karich, Die Welt

»A fearless, astute analysis of the turmoil we are shaken by.« Elisabeth von Thadden, Die Zeit

»[…] intelligent and with a humble attitude and with an eye towards his children, whom he wishes ›a better future than the one discernible at the moment‹.« Hannes Hintermeier, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung