Global Outrage: The Impact of World Opinion on Contemporary History - Softcover

Peter Stearns is Provost and Professor of History at George Mason University in Virginia. He has also taught at Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Carnegie Mellon University, among many others. A prolific author, he has written several highly acclaimed books, including The Battleground of Desire: The Struggle for Self-Control in Modern America (1999, New York University Press), Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in Western Society, Gender in World History (2002, New York University Press) and World History: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity (2004, Longman).

This is a book about world opinion, a subject familiar to anyone who follows world events but which has not been systematically studied. Timeliness is crucial: we have just seen arguably the most massive expression of world opinion ever recorded, against then-imminent war in Iraq, and we have just seen the same expression fail, at least in the short run. Questions about what world opinion is, where it is heading, and what it should be abound, and the analysis of how the phenomenon emerged and how it has evolved will contribute greatly to the answers. Timeliness aside, there are two principal reasons for studying world opinion. First, of course, despite recent limitations, it has become a significant force in world affairs, capable of causing change and emerging as a factor in the decisions of states great and small. And second, more boldly: world opinion has, with minor qualifications, always been right, serving as a constructive human conscience on a growing array of issues. This statement must be proved, of course, and it will be debated, but it reflects more than coincidence. The arousal of moral outrage on the part of people in many (not necessarily all) different countries provides a stamp of validity that has been demonstrated in many specific cases for over two centuries. The problems with world opinion involve consistency and tactical effectiveness, not moral power. Validity does not guarantee the future, of course, but it commands attention, or should command attention, when world opinion is expressed. We deal, then, with a potent, though not omnipotent, element of the contemporary global environment, and a resoundingly positive one. Both features more than justify a new level of attention.