Recent BooksNovember/December 2019 199democracy that had emerged after
World War II. The Bretton Woods
regime collapsed, triggering shifts in
how governments cooperated and
managed their economies. The ¢¤ oil
shocks ushered in stagÁation and an
end to the early postwar commitments
to full employment. New forms o
identity politics followed the cultural
upheavals o the 1960s. Crucially,
centrist forces and institutions across
the Western system began to break up
in this era as the old compromises
between labor and capital frayed. In the
battle o ideas, the postwar Keynesian
consensus gave way to conservative
theories about monetarism and the
deregulation o markets. Many o these
stories are familiar, but Reid-Henry is
particularly good at revealing the subtle
social and cultural transformations that
unfolded in dozens o countries, including
some often overlooked places.
Rethinking Global Governance
BY THOMAS G. WEISS AND
RORDEN WILKINSON. Polity, 2019,
160 pp.
Coined in the 1990s, the term “global
governance” tried to capture the multi-
faceted ways in which governments,
companies, transnational groups, and
international organizations worked in
concert in a time o growing interde-
pendence. Today, talk o global gover-
nance is out o fashion. Many people
hear the phrase and think it is some sort
o elite form o “globalism.” This short,
pithy book makes the case for a new
scholarly focus on international coop-
eration. Weiss and Wilkinson argue that
although resurgent populism and
nationalism have prompted attacks on
globalization, the fact remains that the
world is more intensely interconnected
than ever before. From Änancial mar-
kets to refugee Áows to production
networks, there is no escaping the ways
in which modern societies are vulner-
able to one another. Weiss and Wilkinson
argue that scholars must urgently make
the case that international cooperation
strengthens rather than weakens people’s
ability to take control o and improve
their own lives.This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the
War Against Reality
BY PETER POMERANTSEV.
PublicAairs, 2019, 256 pp.Combining personal memoir with
investigative reporting, Pomerantsev
shares vivid and chilling reports from the
frontlines o the disinformation wars.
He explores the worlds o hackers, trolls,
and purveyors o fake news, making
stops in the Philippines, Russia, Serbia,
Turkey, Ukraine, and a number o
countries in Latin America. The dark
arts are evolving as authoritarian
regimes learn to speak in the vernacular
o the digital age, spreading fake news
through social media, talk shows, and
reality ¡¥ shows. “Digital vigilantes”
employed by hostile governments Áood
Western societies with conspiracy
theories and “alternative facts” to sow
confusion and erode faith in democratic
institutions. Through many anecdotes
and colorful stories, Pomerantsev tells a
depressing morality tale o the age: it
was thought that technology and infor-
mation would strengthen democratic,
liberal, and open societies; make public
debate more informed; and generate
cooperation across borders—but the