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

by Kevin H. O'Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262150492
• ISBN13: 9780262150491
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Good Data, Wrong Bias

I would agree that this is a very good book in terms of presenting what happened in the 19th century Atlantic economy. I do have one critical observation. The authors blame the collapse of globalization on the lobbying of particular industries; thus setting up the argument that general gains from trade were lost to special interests. This is in accord with their belief that globalization is a good thing. As an economist working on these issues for many years, with experience in government as well as academics and the private sector, I have to disagree. Clearly, governments need to rally constituents to support policies. Yet, from our own Alexander Hamilton to Germany's Otto von Bismarck, and a host of others, states had a strategic vision of what was in the national interest for which they sought support. This is the origin of the "iron and wheat" alliances that O'Rourke and Williamson credit with undoing "free trade" on the continent. This was a strategy of national economic development and strategic independence under which the major powers were able to successfully increase their economic growth rates. For evidence of this I would recommend Paul Bairoch's book Economics and World History (Univ. of Chicago, 1993). As the great economic thinker Joseph Schumpeter observed "the consistent support given by the American people to protectionist policies...is accounted for not by any love for or domination by big business, but by a fervant wish to build and keep a world of their own and to be rid of all the vicissitudes of the rest of the world." This is true of most people, most places---which is why the current fad of globalization will not last either.

Economic History Made Delightful

This book is not an easy read. Especially if you are not interested in economics and lack basic economics terminologies, you'll certainly have difficulties appreciating this book the way it should be. It is, however, an tremendously insightful story of the evolution and devolution of globalizm in the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It, in rigorous details, shows how an earlier period of globalization in the late 19th century was self-destructed by the very same forces that established it as a significant force in the global economic system. It reflects how easy it is to lose the benefits of economic globalism which we today often take for granted.

Interesting history 19th cent. Atlantic globalization

I am an economist working on globalization issues, interested in history and economic history. I found this book an excellent study that puts globalization discussion in historical (19th century) context, a period of large international capital flows and even larger human capital flows. Th study uses data on these mass movements in production factors to empirically test/uses the standard international trade Heckscher Olin model on income and factor price distribution in trade. It shows that these mass movements had indeed measurable effects on income distribution following some of the model predictions. Problems of globalization in economic terms are indeed linked to the income effects of several groups in the economy following the opening up to increasing trade, investment and migration flows. All too often these discussions are marred by lack of data and lack of historical awareness, and i found this study filling a real gap. It surely will be contested but i found the analysis interesting and well-written. Recommended!