Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy Book

Globalization is not a new phenomenon; nor is it irreversible. In Globalization and History, Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914--the first great globalization boom. The book's originality lies in its application of the tools of open-economy economics to this critical historical period--differentiating it from most previous work, which has been based on closed-economy or single-sector models. The authors also keep a close eye on globalization debates of the 1990s, using history to inform the present and vice versa. The book brings together research conducted by the authors over the past decade--work that has profoundly influenced how economic history is now written and that has found audiences in economics and history, as well as in the popular press. "Fans and foes of globalization usually agree on one thing: its inevitability. But that is a big mistake, as this fine piece of scholarship makes clear. . . . It is an exceptionally rigorous and insightful history of globalization. Its main message--that globalization can sow the seeds of its own destruction--is salutary. It should be required reading for anyone inclined to think that economic history is bunk." -- The Economist