The fourth edition of this best-selling coursebook is designed to help college and first year university students. It requires no previous knowledge and covers international relations and major conflicts during the Twentieth Century, as well as the internal affairs of the great powers - USA, Russia/USSR and China. Coverage is brought right up to the present, with sections on September 11th and the war against global terrorism, the war in Iraq, global warming and the AIDS/HIV pandemic.

List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface to the Fourth Edition
PART ONE: WAR AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The World in 1914: Outbreak of the First World War
The First World War and its Aftermath
The League of Nations
International Relations 1919-33
International Relations 1933-39
The Second World War, 1939-45
The Cold War: Problems of International Relations after the Second World War
The Spread of Communism Outside Europe and its Effects on International Relations
The United Nations Organization
The Two Europes, East and West Since 1945
Conflict in the Middle East
The New World Order and the War Against Global Terrorism
PART TWO: THE RISE OF FASCISM AND GOVERNMENTS OF THE RIGHT
Italy 1918-45: The First Appearance of Fascism
Germany 1918-45: The Weimar Republic and Hitler
Japan and Spain
PART THREE: COMMUNISM - RISE AND DECLINE
Russia and the Revolutions, 1900-24
The USSR and Stalin, 1924-53
Continuing Communism, Collapse and Aftermath, 1953-2005
China 1900-49
China since 1949: The Communists in Control
Communism in Korea and South East
PART FOUR: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The USA Before the Second World War
The USA Since 1945
PART FIVE: DE-COLONISATION AND AFTER
The End of the European Empires
Problems in Africa
PART SIX: GLOBAL PROBLEMS
The Changing World Economy Since 1900
The World's Population
Further Reading
Index

NORMAN LOWE has had many years' experience of teaching history at all levels in schools and colleges and for twenty years was head of history at Nelson and Colne Tertiary College in Lancashire, UK. He is the author of Mastering Modern British History and Mastering Twentieth-Century Russian History, and is a freelance writer and lecturer.