The Deluge

The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

By: Adam Tooze

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial system shifted from London to New York. The infinite demands for men and materiel reached into countries far from the front. The strain of the war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, bringing unheard-of changes in the social and industrial order. A century after the outbreak of fighting, Adam Tooze revisits this seismic moment in history, challenging the existing narrative of the war, its peace, and its aftereffects. From the day the United States enters the war in 1917 to the precipice of global financial ruin, Tooze delineates the world remade by American economic and military power.

Tracing the ways in which countries came to terms with America's centrality - including the slide into fascism - The Deluge is a chilling work of great originality that will fundamentally change how we view the legacy of World War I.

©2014 Adam Tooze (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Tooze's grand economic history is stimulating, persuasive, and surprisingly accessible." ( Publishers Weekly)

Extremely interesting and useful.

I really learned a lot about an era I knew quite a bit about so totally worth it.

A deep economic analysis of famous historic political and military events

Brilliant economic history review of the period from 1916-1931. Tooze writes with clarity and the narration is top notch.

Dense...really dense

This book is really dense in terms of topics and I needed a bit more hand holding at times in terms of background. But in my mind if you are interested in this topic, it will definitely get you the info you need. I guess I just needed a bit more of an "Economics and Politics of WWI for Dummies" type book. But that won't stop me from reading Tooze's book on the financial crisis.

Nice book

Good recording. Hime good read book. Yes. Very good. Oh buddy. Hi mommy. What? Is

Epic Sweep Fascinating Choice of Periodization

Despite my disagreements with him, Tooze is a fascinating and brilliant historian. The Deluge is the best history of the early interwar period.

Excellent study of the period

There was very little that was brand new in this narrative, but it is one of the very best synthesis I have ever read on the period. I would recommend this book to any one studying or interested in the interwar period. It provides an understanding and layout of the dynamics of international affairs as the world began its slide into the diplomacy of the 1930s. It is the single best volume on this period.

Important view

How the world of the 20th century evolved in the 1920s and the depression was created by the actions and errors of the governments involved.

Very interesting but also very Keynesian

The economic analysis focuses mostly on credit markets and seem to forget that real resourses where destroyed in the war.
otherwise Great

brilliant and irreplaceable

this book makes you feel like you have been on the edge of your seat for the entire 30 year. From 1914 to the end of World War II, and like you understand everything that has happened since. if clausewitz had had training as an economist, he would rather have written this book.

Great insight

Worth listening to. Makes one think about the consequences of the invasion of Iraq and the current economic outlook. What is waiting in our future?