Synopses & Reviews
Globalization requires a new reading of the human story. Historian Robbie Robertson argues that the human interconnections slowly developing since pre-history achieved global proportions for the first time 500 years ago. A globalized humanity needs a new consciousness of itself to avoid the upset threatened by ethnic and national tensions, environmental catastrophes, and a new democratic divide. Our nascent global consciousness, Robertson urges, needs to be fostered to effect global solutions based on an inclusive reading of history, economic democratization, and individual empowerment.
Synopsis
Globalization necessitates a new reading of the human story, argues historian Robbie Robertson in this thought-provoking study. Its origins, he suggests, lie in the interconnections that slowly enveloped humans since the earliest of times.
But things changed dramatically 500 years ago when humanity's interconnections assumed global proportions for the first time and produced what the author sees as three consecutive waves of globalization that have radically transformed human societies and their economic activities.
Managing these revolutionary changes has proved difficult. Globalization is destabilizing. The first wave after 1500 destroyed over 90 per cent of North and South America's peoples and contributed to war and revolution in Europe. It also generated an industrial revolution that shaped the second wave in the 19th century. But in the ensuing rush to monopolize the wealth and power globalization promised, classes, nations and empires escalated their rivalries. Consequently the second wave also faltered and collapsed into depression and war.
Now the same fate could face us again if we ignore the social and historical lessons globalization presents us with. A globalized humanity, says Robertson, has to develop a new consciousness of itself in order to effect global solutions based on an inclusive rather than exclusive reading of history.
'This is a bold, imaginative book?.. A very stimulating, critical contribution to the contemporary literature.'
Stephanie Lawson, Professor of International Relations, University of East Anglia
'At last an historian who sees the big picture about globalization and its present manifestation. Robbie Robertson has produced a readable but learned book that will cause anger, debate, even dismay to those who both support and oppose globalization. A must-read for all those who care about our common future and want to know more about the human condition and its evolution and promise.'
Mike Moore, World Trade Organization"
About the Author
Robbie Robertson teaches History and Development Studies, La Trobe University, Australia.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I: GLOBALIZING KNOWLEDGE
1. Developing Global Consciousness
The historical and social context of globalization
Our exploration
2. Struggles for Survival and Wellbeing
Rare Earth
The chaos of life
Evolving from diversity to diversity
Interpreting the human condition
What drives humans?
Struggles for survival and wellbeing: the historical consequences
Part II: THE FIRST WAVE OF GLOBALIZATION
3. Early Global Transformations
Civilizations
Motors of change
Migration as a strategy for security and well being
Conquest as a strategy for security and well being
Commerce as a strategy for security and well being
The technological impulse
The agricultural record
4. Fragile Commercial Imperatives
Reading backwards
Exceptionalism denied
The lure of riches
The commercial strategy
New global dynamics
Instability
Part III: THE SECOND WAVE OF GLOBALIZATION
5. Globalization's Industrial Child
Europe alone
Britain alone
Globalization's child
Global development futures
6. Empires of Disadvantage
The industrializing impulse
Prisoners in other people's futures
Empires of disadvantage
The technological imperative
7. Implosion
The second wave falters
The shock of uncertainty
Corporatism's new deals
Part IV: THE THIRD WAVE OF GLOBALIZATION
8. American Globalism
Strategies for globalization
Decolonization
Modernization
The war of globalisms
Soviet globalism
Globalization transformed
9. Globalizing Democracies
The democratic divide
The democratic imperative
Democracy reinterpreted
Gender democratized
Democratizing race
10. Globalizing Perspectives
The economic challenge
The environmental challenge
The multicultural challenge
Proposals for developing global consciousness
Bibliography
Index