The Contemporary Global Economy
A History since 1980
By: Alfred E. Eckes, Jr.
Published: May 16, 2011
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1405183438
ISBN-13: 978-1405183437
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
"While millions of people have benefited from the contemporary global economy - particularly high-income and professional elites - not everyone has shared its prosperity", writes Ohio Eminent Research Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University, and former Chairman of the US International Trade Commission, Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., in his authoritative and well balanced book The Contemporary Global Economy: A History since 1980. The author provides a sophisticated overview of the global economy, including both the positive and negative impact on the developing and industrialized world.
Alfred E. Eckes, Jr. takes a historical perspective on the tumultuous transformation of the global world since 1980. For the author, the increasing globalization brought many changes to the people of the world, including some still unaddressed challenges and problems. Through the eyes of a historian, Alfred Eckes follows the overarching trends in an ever more globalized and interconnected world, and how dramatic alteration of global markets created some serious disruptions in local, national, and international economies. Through the often misguided policies of governments and corporations, serious imbalances were created, resulting in massive dislocation and migration of people. Within the affected countries, people found their lives and their roles in society changed forever.
Alfred E. Eckes, Jr. grounds his historical approach to globalization in a long term historical context, beginning in the latter nineteenth, through the changes of the twentieth century, and ending with the global financial collapse of 2008. Along the way, the author meticulously documents the actions of politicians, trade representatives, and other international actors. Alfred Eckes provides a fascinating outline of the intellectual underpinnings and challenges presented by globalization as well. With an overview of the various economic thinkers, and how their ideas have influenced policy makers, the author offers a backdrop as to why some controversial decisions were made over time. For Alfred Eckes, as the twentieth century moved into the new millennium, many of the challenges and problems created by globalization were not addressed, resulting in severe economic problems and dislocations around the world. The author makes clear that these still existing problems and economic imbalances must be resolved to ensure a successful global economy that benefits all of the world's people.
For me, the power of the book is how Alfred E. Eckes, Jr. presents a serious and compelling portrait of the global economy, and its challenges and actions. The author provides extensive research, and extensive footnotes and a comprehensive bibliography, to support his position. The complexity of the triumphs and failures of globalization are outlined well in this fine book, dispensing with arcane jargon, and presented in approachable and readily understood chapters.
This book will appeal to both supporters and opponents of globalization, as the author offers a clear eyed description of how the global economy reached its current state, and how the actions of the past three decades has led to some difficult challenges. Through an open examination of the problems posed by globalization, policy makers and trade advisers can seek alternatives that will enhance the global economy while redressing the growing imbalances between countries and individuals.
I highly recommend the brilliant and well reasoned book The Contemporary Global Economy: A History since 1980 by Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., to anyone seeking a well written and comprehensive book on the march of globalization since 1980. The author presents the information, in a format that is readily understood by any reader, as to how the driving forces of economic change operate and how they are clearly visible today.
Read the important and essential book The Contemporary Global Economy: A History since 1980 by Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., and discover the growing and still unsettled issues surrounding the global economy. The foremost authority on international economic history is a reliable guide to the world that globalization created, and how to make that world a more sustainable and equitable one today and for future generations.
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