Hegemony is one of those rare words that are widely used in the literature on international relations and political science, but there is no agreement among researchers on their exact meaning. In the first full-fledged historical study of the concept of "hegemony," the famous British historian Perry Anderson traces its origins in ancient Greece, its rediscovery during the unrest of 1848-1849 in Germany, and then a bizarre fate in revolutionary Russia, fascist Italy, Cold War America, Thatcher's Britain, post-colonial India, feudal Japan, Maoist China all the way to peace Merkel, May, Bush and Obama.