Global Capitalism

- Blurb -

International trade has risen to unprecedented levels; much of what we consume is imported, and much of what we produce is exported; businesses send huge quantities of capital abroad; millions of people migrate yearly in search of jobs; and the world's economies are more open to one another than ever before. So the global economy operated in 1900. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet it took only a few months for the entire edifice to collapse under the pressures of imperial rivalry and ethnic hatred during the summer of 1914. The international order disintegrated with the Great War. Despite the efforts of world leaders to restore it, the global economy imploded in the Great Depression of the 1930s and was further damaged by World War II. Only after the grip of the Cold War slackened would national economies once again turn fully outward. Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. It delivers benefits to some and setbacks to others. It exposes national economies to strains and shocks that originate elsewhere, and it limits the control that nations exercise over their resources. Its operation is a continuing exercise not only of markets and prices but also of power and influence. It is a high-wire act requiring a delicate balance of interests and policy, vulnerable to seismic shifts anywhere in the world. Jeffry A. Frieden's insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the twentieth century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, and the turn again toward global integration at the end of the century. Throughout, Frieden is alert to the political economies of nations and regions, focusing on developments in Latin America, Asia, and Africa as well as in Europe and North America. His history is full of character and event, as entertaining as it is enlightening. It offers a deeper understanding of the century just past and a clearer view of our current situation.