John Darwin was until his retirement last year Professor of Imperial and Global History at the University of Oxford. He is the author of After Tamerlane, Unfinished Empire and The Empire Project.
Striking ... The work underlines how the past 50 years' surge of globalisation has built on the previous wave that started nearly 200 years ago ... A compelling picture of the societies that drove steam globalisation. -- Robert Wright * Financial Times * In the great opening up of the world that is his subject, the port cities were the hinges ... an enjoyable synthesis of a large body of scholarship. * The Economist * A fine, important and original book ... wonderful. -- Paul Kennedy * Literary Review *