"Globalization" is here. Signified by an increasingly close economic interconnection that has led to profound political and social change around the world, the process seems irreversible. In this book, however, Harold James provides a sobering historical perspective, exploring the circumstances in which the globally integrated world of an earlier era broke down under the pressure of unexpected events.
James examines one of the great historical nightmares of the twentieth century: the collapse of globalism in the Great Depression. Analyzing this collapse in terms of three main components of global economicscapital flows, trade, and international migrationJames argues that it was not simply a consequence of the strains of World War I but resulted from the interplay of resentments against all these elements of mobility, as well as from the policies and institutions designed to assuage the threats of globalism. Could it happen again? There are significant parallels today: highly integrated systems are inherently vulnerable to collapse, and world financial markets are vulnerable and unstable. While James does not foresee another Great Depression, his book provides a cautionary tale in which institutions meant to save the world from the consequences of globalizationthink WTO and IMF, in our own timeended by destroying both prosperity and peace.
Harold James is the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: The End of Globalization and the Problem of the Depression
2. Monetary Policy and Banking Instability
3. Tariffs, Trade Policy, and the Collapse of International Trade
4. The Reaction against International Migration
5. The Age of Nationalism versus the Age of Capital
6. Conclusion: Can It Happen Again?
Notes
Index
What People are Saying About This
Barry Eichengreen
This is a carefully crafted book on a topical subject. The scholarship is first rate. James demonstrates why he is rightly regarded as the leading historian of the political economy of the interwar period. Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Gold Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939.
Michael D. Bordo
This book is a major contribution to the field of international economic history. It gives us some very powerful insights on the effects of globalization on institution building and destruction. It also provides very detailed and valuable information on the deglobalization experiences of many countries in the interwar period with respect to the breakdown of the financial system and the backlash on international trade and migration. Michael D. Bordo, Rutgers University