Another graphic

Another good graphic from the FT stable, this one from an article about the difficulty we have, here in the UK, in adjusting to our reduced standing in the world, a reduced standing which has been apparent to pretty much everyone else since the end of the second world war. A war which, we are told, made the UK poor and the US rich.

Perhaps we should do more to promote the study of the history of other formerly great powers in our schools, powers like Athens, Rome, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Turkey and France. To promote a better understanding of how they managed, or mismanaged, the same adjustment. Listed here roughly in date order. Maybe reference 2 should be one of the set books, a long book, described as an INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, but one which I don't think I ever got around to reading. Perhaps now is the time? However, both Amazon and Abebooks wanted at least £15, with some copies on sale for a lot more, which was too much - while ebay did the job for £3.29 including postage - so maybe I will get around to turning the pages.

A good graphic, but as ever, one worries about its accuracy. It is very hard to put together graphs covering such a long period of time - and two big wars - as these do. A century is a long time in statistics, never mind more than a century and a half.

PS: puzzled by the good price offered by ebay, I checked both Amazon and Abebooks again. To find that I had missed the secondhand department at Amazon, although they still couldn't match the ebay price. While the Abebooks prices held, in part because of hefty charges for posting from foreign parts. Perhaps my ebay version will turn out to be some bargain basement reprint or an abridgement.

Reference 1: From Suez to Brexit and back again: Britain’s long search for a role: Britain’s departure from the EU reopens a difficult debate over its place in the world - Philip Stephens/FT - 2021. January 15 2021.

Reference 2: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers - Paul Kennedy - 1987.