Globalization in Historical Perspective.

• Author: Snowdon, Brian
• Position: Book Review

Globalization in Historical Perspective Edited by Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor, and Jeffrey G. Williamson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 588. $95.00

The 21st century will truly mark a new and challenging era for the global economy. The powerful forces of economic integration now extend their influence to all parts of the world, and in the long run this trend would seem to be irreversible even if this is not necessarily the case in the short run. To many antiglobalists, this trend, in a variety of ways, represents a serious challenge to the viability of the international economy. In particular, it seems to pose a threat to the welfare and prospects for economic progress in the developing countries. It is no surprise, therefore, that during the last quarter of the 20th century the issue of global economic integration, or in more popular language, "globalization," has become a major issue of public concern. Witness, for example, the recent public demonstrations against globalization by a heterogeneous "angry minority" of critics that includes academics, environmentalists, ultra nationalists, labor unions, various nongovernment organizations, human rights activists, anticapitalists, communists, and anarchists. Such is the interest in globalization-related issues that it has become virtually impossible to keep abreast with the burgeoning literature. For example, enter the word "globalization" into the Google search engine and you get 1.76 million hits! Therefore, to make any real impact on the current debate, any new book on globalization needs to have something new and special to offer. Globalization in Historical Perspective is just such a book and will appeal to a very wide audience.

This superb volume contains 11 chapters grouped into three parts, namely, "The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Market Integration," "The Great Divergence, Geography, and Technology," and "Financial Institutions, Regimes, and Crises." The individual chapters were originally written and presented as papers for a National Bureau of Economic Research Conference held in California in May 2001. All 38 contributors are well-known scholars in their respective fields, and individual chapters include Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke on "Commodity Market Integration"; Barry Chiswick and Timothy Hatton on "International Migration"; Maurice Obstfeld and Alan Taylor on the "Globalization of Capital Markets"; Steve Dowrick and Bradford DeLong on "Convergence"; Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson on "Global Inequality"; Gregory Clark and Robert Feenstra on "Technology and the Great Divergence"; Nick Crafts and Anthony Venables on "Globalization: A Geographical Perspective"; Peter Rousseau and Richard Sylla on "Globalisation, Growth, and Financial Systems"; Michael Bordo and Marc Flandrean on "Exchange Rate Regimes"; Larry Neal and Marc Weidenmier on "Financial Crises and Contagion"; and Barry Eichengreen and Harold James on "Monetary and Financial Reform." Each chapter is reviewed by expert commentators including Douglas Irwin, Riccardo Faini, Richard...