Recent BooksSeptember/October 2019 223workers, and rising wealth for owners
brought political struggles over state
protection and the extent o democracy.
The golden age o capitalism and democ-
racy emerged in the early twentieth
century in places such as Detroit, where
new technologies o mass production
raised labor productivity, boosted wages,
brought down inequality, and enabled
vibrant liberal democracies. Today,
another technological revolution is
generating radical income inequality and
destabilizing political life. Yet Boix
rejects technological and economic deter-
minism. Industrial societies, he believes,
can still regain control o the future.
The World’s Most Prestigious Prize: The
Inside Story of the Nobel Peace Prize
BY GEIR LUNDESTAD. Oxford
University Press, 2019, 240 pp.
Since it was ¿rst awarded, in 1901, the
Nobel Peace Prize has been given
annually to a kaleidoscopic assortment
o activists, politicians, diplomats, moral
leaders, and organizations—from
Theodore Roosevelt and Jane Addams
to Amnesty International and the
European Union. Lundestad, a longtime
director o the Norwegian Nobel Insti-
tute, argues that despite the diversity o
¿gures and causes, the honorees tend to
reÇect a “Norwegian approach” to
international politics, a mix o realism,
idealism, and liberal internationalism that
emphasizes practical eorts to promote
democracy, human rights, humanitarian-
ism, disarmament, and international
cooperation. In its early years, the prize
went primarily to European and Ameri-
can men, but the committee has since
broadened its reach, honoring women,
non-Western groups, and activists
engaged in local and nontraditional
peacemaking, such as environmentalism
and campaigns against sexual violence.
Many view the Nobel Peace Prize as an
expression o Western liberal values.
The Chinese government protested
bitterly in 2010 when the award was given
to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights
activist. But Lundestad makes an
eloquent case that the prize has a univer-
sal appeal, grounded in humanitarian
and nonviolent ideals on which no
country or civilization holds a monopoly.Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers
BY YAN XUETONG. Princeton
University Press, 2019, 280 pp.Yan takes on a classic question: Why do
great powers rise and fall? With an eye to
explaining recent Chinese success in
challenging U.S. dominance, he advances
a theory he calls “moral realism.” Borrow-
ing from ancient Chinese philosophers,
Yan argues that when governments de¿ne
a moral worldview, they are more likely to
successfully take over from their declining
peers. Much o the book details how
states can project moral strength in world
aairs, which, for Yan, means oering
sober and consistent de¿nitions o the
national interest, protecting international
norms, and establishing credibility in
alliances. Yan argues that since the end o
the Cold War, China has been more
successful—or “ecient”—in this project
than the United States and thus has
steadily gained ground on its rival,
although he admits that China has yet to
develop a set o postliberal values that can
compete for global inÇuence. It’s not
entirely clear whether Yan’s theory is
distinctively Chinese, but he is surely
correct that U.S.-Chinese competition