N.S.B. Gras, the father of Business History in the United States, argued that the era of mercantile capitalism was … today's world of global business …

"As Europe rebuilt after the devastation of the Second World War, the former colonies of the major imperial powers … competing forces led to conflicts and shifting alliances around the postwar world. Turbulent Empires surveys the major polities … world, the sudden collapse of the commodities supercycle, and the continuing challenge of inequality. By the second decade …