A Future Perfect : The Challenge and Promise of Globalization
Author: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
List Price: $15.95
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ISBN: 0812966805
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (11 March, 2003)
Sales Rank: 58,679
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
The age's great shift made reasonably tangible
This book is often funny and insightful and most importantly offers a good survey of the processes and challenges that make up one of man's great products-Globalization. Brilliance is seen in chapter 10 where the authors examine the notion of the Americanization of the world. The common beliefs are flipped on their heads as the authors explain how complaints of Hollywood corrupting the rest of the world are actually contrary to fact. It is actually the world's influence on Hollywood that makes its product less desirable. Fascinating insight like this is found throughout the book. Refreshing techniques are used to explain themes of Globalization keeping the reader engaged and willing to learn. At one point, the authors examine the "losers" of Globalization by taking individuals in different situations and examining their unique dilemmas. Thereupon, the authors tie together the disparate instances and look at all three from another angle in attempt to exonerate Globalization.
This book IS an attempt to promote Globalization. Some times, the aim gets in the way of logic and what seems to be contradiction results. In the conclusion, the authors laud the free market, but (for some reason) do so through the eyes of the anti-free-market Karl Marx and come up with an unsatisfactory excuse for taxes (liberalism's self-doubt).
This kind of contradiction is not uncommon throughout the text and as a result, many of the proofs are severely lacking. Even if the explanations don't contradict, they are not as thorough as the reader might hope. I would really have liked a better explanation of the riots in Seattle and a more thorough examination of the anti-Globalization movement as a whole. Statements that appear to end a chapter and theme seemed like they could have been doors to more complex and penetrating analysis.
Despite these flaws, the text is a good read. It is clear and offers several concepts that will stimulate the keen reader.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Globalization not Americanization!
Micklethwait and Woolridge go through great lengths to explain globalization in terms that support an American slant to the phenomena and provide a great counterargument against the global view of Americanization. The views and examples provided enlighten the reader through real people and events that reads like a novel. The authors provide great insight about the effects and consequences of globalization on the underdeveloped and poor. They reject the myth of the evil markets and explain the real problem of subsidies, government mismanagement, and inefficiencies. They detail successful recipes and inevitable failures with discussions on education, political systems and monetary reforms. The Future Perfect should be a must read before becoming a protestor or supporter of Globalization.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Comprehensive depiction of globalization
This book is a wonderfully complete analysis of the causes and effects of globalization. It examines the benefits, the winners and losers, and the facilitators or impediments of globalization. The authors take a truely global stance themselves by examining cases around the world, describing both the glorious benefits and the much more publicised unfortunate consequences of the evolution from local to national to global economic competition. A must read! Similar Products
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