Wonder and Worry
Contemporary History in an Age of Uncertainty
Published on 11. September 2025
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-91-90021-01-9 (ISBN)
Description
The current global order appears to be collapsing. Long forgotten challenges, such as the return of great power competition and the specter of nuclear war, demand fresh attention, while novel, complex, and menacing planetary crises ranging from climate and disease to emerging technology loom. Meanwhile, the United States-the most consequential nation in the international system, behaves erratically and seems willing to abandon its decades-long strategy of building strong alliances, countering authoritarianism and supporting openness. Legacy institutions, and in particular, elite universities, appear unable to meet the moment and provide the scholarly insight and training needed to navigate this new world. How should we understand these unsettling trends?
Wonder and Worry offers Francis J. Gavin's best insights on the pressing, fundamental questions we face. What is the state of world politics and the international system? What has been and should be America's role in the global order? And what is the most effective way to evaluate, generate insight, and teach the next generation how to answer the first two questions? Gavin's answers are nuanced, counterintuitive, and often surprisingly optimistic. Wonder and Worry is an incisive and accessible contemporary history for our uncertain age.
Wonder and Worry offers Francis J. Gavin's best insights on the pressing, fundamental questions we face. What is the state of world politics and the international system? What has been and should be America's role in the global order? And what is the most effective way to evaluate, generate insight, and teach the next generation how to answer the first two questions? Gavin's answers are nuanced, counterintuitive, and often surprisingly optimistic. Wonder and Worry is an incisive and accessible contemporary history for our uncertain age.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Sweden
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 247 mm
Width: 176 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
942 gr
ISBN-13
978-91-90021-01-9 (9789190021019)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Francis Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural director of the Henry A Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS. In 2021, Professor Gavin was named a 2021-2022 Ernest May Senior Visiting Fellow of the Applied History Project at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Gavin is the author of Gold, Dollars, and Power: the Politics of International Monetary Relations, 1958-1971 and Nuclear Weapons and American Grand Strategy.