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Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism, New and Expanded Edition
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First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Walter F. LaFeber
24 books26 followersOne of the foremost scholars of American foreign policy, Walter Fredrick LaFeber was the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University. Previous to that he served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 14, 2023
"I'd rather talk about basketball".---Michael Jordan, when asked about abuses at Nike factories in Indonesia and Viet Nam.
When we lost Walter LaFeber in 2021, we lost a big fish, and I lost royalties for all the times I assigned his books to my students. No matter what the topic of his books Walter always kept his eyes on the prize: The U.S. Empire. After surveying empires of land and sea (Central America, the Panama Canal) LaFeber decided to tackle an empire of the air, or how Michael Jordan and Nike came to symbolize global capitalism in the twenty-first century. Here's one clue: Michael Jordan the basketball superstar and "Michael Jordan" the brand name, are not the same person. Global capitalism strips everything and everyone from countries to individuals of their identity, replacing it with a brand logo. Think of Panama as a money-laundering paradise or Russia as "Europe's gas station", in the words of Thomas Freedman. Jordan is, however, not only due to his planetary fame but because he literally, by which I mean financially, links shoe factories in Southeast Asia to gang-bangers in South Central Los Angeles to London banks. He has done more to transform the world than a dozen statesmen. Is he a shill for Nike? He has every right to be. Does his legend status sponsor robbery and even murder over shoes? It most certainly does, thanks to his partnership with Nike. Mike would have you believe he's an "I'm just a businessman" kind of guy. The truth is he is a revolutionary for an ever-hungry planetary capital.
When we lost Walter LaFeber in 2021, we lost a big fish, and I lost royalties for all the times I assigned his books to my students. No matter what the topic of his books Walter always kept his eyes on the prize: The U.S. Empire. After surveying empires of land and sea (Central America, the Panama Canal) LaFeber decided to tackle an empire of the air, or how Michael Jordan and Nike came to symbolize global capitalism in the twenty-first century. Here's one clue: Michael Jordan the basketball superstar and "Michael Jordan" the brand name, are not the same person. Global capitalism strips everything and everyone from countries to individuals of their identity, replacing it with a brand logo. Think of Panama as a money-laundering paradise or Russia as "Europe's gas station", in the words of Thomas Freedman. Jordan is, however, not only due to his planetary fame but because he literally, by which I mean financially, links shoe factories in Southeast Asia to gang-bangers in South Central Los Angeles to London banks. He has done more to transform the world than a dozen statesmen. Is he a shill for Nike? He has every right to be. Does his legend status sponsor robbery and even murder over shoes? It most certainly does, thanks to his partnership with Nike. Mike would have you believe he's an "I'm just a businessman" kind of guy. The truth is he is a revolutionary for an ever-hungry planetary capital.
October 31, 2025
Basically like reading the last dance (hist version), but so good in linking the growth of communication tech and capitalism in the 70s-90s with the 21st century.
April 1, 2019
What can only be described as one-part incoherent technobabble, one-part trying-to-sound-significantly-smarter-than-you-are, two parts paid-by-the word, and one-part musings from a crotchety old Soviet professor, Walter LaFeber's "Michael Jordan and the New Globalist Capitalwhatever" was quite possibly the most infuriating read that I somehow finished (despite my intense desire to throw it into a trash compactor). Sloppily constructed, painfully boring, and utterly unconvincing, it holds the distinction of a book that dangles promises of profound insights in front of your face, only to turn out to be less informative and more poorly-written than the dubiously-sourced, factually incorrect trivia on the bottom of a Snapple lid.
First of all, sports. Granted, Michael Jordan is in the title. However, despite the book being preeminently billed as a treatise on global capitalism, it was surprisingly short on economics or sociopolitical theory. Instead, much of LaFeber's book was a sports novel written by someone who is clearly too far stuck in academia to grasp the abstract concept of "a sport". LaFeber spends page after page both describing the smallest minutiae in the history of how basketball rules were formed and providing probably the driest summaries possible of basketball games. He also obsessively includes pointless scores from functionally irrelevant games by unknown defunct teams, which was also annoying.
On a similar token, LaFeber also seems to think that people solely get involved with sports to participate in consumerism. For instance-do you know 94% of young people worship Michael Jordan religiously? Were you aware that cool young people refer to themselves as "the skater generation"? Save the latter, I just made those up, but I honestly think my examples accurately represent the ridiculous claims about consumerism and sports that LaFeber sprinkles liberally throughout his dumb book. And I certainly provided just as much proof for my claims as he did. My point is: LaFeber comes across as a cranky old out-of-touch academic who has never quite gotten a grasp on how anything in the real world works, for which he compensated by just claiming absurd, poorly-supported generalizations that I guess seem true enough from his vantage point. It is infuriating, and it makes the book hard to sit through.
The parts of this book that address economic systems are also strangely devoid of a central message or consistent moral framing. LaFeber clearly thinks that global capitalism is bad, but mostly the book gives you a large dose of "big corporations are bad" while being sparse on any details describing how that is the case. Further, it is unsettlingly capricious in its feelings towards some of the obvious drawbacks to corporate globalization. For instance, the book is surprisingly light on Nike et al.'s use of sweatshops, suggesting that Western disdain for such awful business practices might much be a product of our cultural norms, rather than of sincere concern for people being systemically exploited solely for corporate profits. He writes similarly about American concerns about the rights of foreign female workers. Simultaneously, though, the book goes on numerous, impassioned diatribes about how terrible it is that Nike and Michael Jordan export American ideals and values (think "valuing the 'self-made man'", egalitarianism, etc.) to the rest of the world. This is, to me, a strange issue to throw outrage at whilst concurrently waffling over whether or not sweatshops and sexual harassment in foreign factories are unequivocally morally reprehensible regardless of cultural context. Even after finishing the book, I never could glean a consistent, comprehensive ideological framework being argued for. The whole book is like this. It's weird.
However, all this gives a hint at LaFeber's M.O.: he thinks blithely obvious statements coupled with extremely narrow, circumstance-specific examples and sweeping generalizations are the same exact thing as actual data and evidence that plainly point to a given conclusion. Granted, it is not fair to say that history is explainable simply using impartial quantitative data and statistical analysis (as it is a qualitative discipline), but LaFeber reduces this to the absurd. His examples are divorced from the points he tries to make with them by several orders of magnitude. (For example, to support the thesis that global capitalism spread to an unprecedented level in the twentieth century, LaFeber used anecdotes about how satellites can broadcast information to (gasp) more than one single geographic region as primary evidence. Yeah.). Wholly, all the evidences he asserts price his claims lack relevance and even interdependence, and instead seem insular, redundant, irrelevant, and wantonly misapplied.
And then there's the 9/11 chapter. In the revised physical edition, LaFeber decided to write a new chapter describing how Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks perfectly fit into his global capitalism thesis. (If you had the luck to purchase an eBook instead of the physical copy, you'll be spared this sinkhole of awful.) Basically, he argues that Al Qaeda is like a global company and that globalization caused 9/11. It's ridiculous, it's nonsensical, it's poorly-conceived and ill-thought-through, and it's insulting. Frankly, I can't believe the publisher even allowed this chapter to be printed. In my opinion, it is clearly unsourced garbage that all-but apologies for terrorism, equates bin Laden with normal Western businesspeople, and moves the blame of 9/11 onto a dumb incoherent narrative about globalization and away from, you know, terrorists. It's a festering, egregious false equivalency. To me, LaFeber no less than took 9/11 and exploited it for his own gain: this chapter was simply the shoehorning of a tragedy that affected almost every American into a means by which to funnel those people into buying or reading an otherwise unknown and unremarkable book.
My final issue with this book (and granted, an issue of principle rather than substance) lies in the prologue. (First of all-the "prologue"? That was clearly the answer to the Google search for "how do I make a boring introduction also sound unbearably pretentious?".) In it, amongst other unfathomably ridiculous things, LaFeber contends that it is "a short book". I would contend that Dr. LaFeber is insane. It is nearly 200 pages of dense pretentious prose that you have to read five times to glean any discernible meaning from whatsoever. Furthermore, like the DMV, it makes each second of your life feel like five days. And it makes you want to die. That LaFeber even thinks this constitutes "a short book" is absurd.
So, to conclude, I didn't like this book. That I took the time to write this extended rant should probably show you something. I wholeheartedly recommend that you do not read it under any circumstance, even if under derision. If you're still curious about the content, I'd suggest a macroeconomics textbook (less boring) or a televised basketball game (just as informative) instead, as you'd get a significantly better return on your investment. If you must read this book, though, please do so with caution, and don't say I didn't warn you.
First of all, sports. Granted, Michael Jordan is in the title. However, despite the book being preeminently billed as a treatise on global capitalism, it was surprisingly short on economics or sociopolitical theory. Instead, much of LaFeber's book was a sports novel written by someone who is clearly too far stuck in academia to grasp the abstract concept of "a sport". LaFeber spends page after page both describing the smallest minutiae in the history of how basketball rules were formed and providing probably the driest summaries possible of basketball games. He also obsessively includes pointless scores from functionally irrelevant games by unknown defunct teams, which was also annoying.
On a similar token, LaFeber also seems to think that people solely get involved with sports to participate in consumerism. For instance-do you know 94% of young people worship Michael Jordan religiously? Were you aware that cool young people refer to themselves as "the skater generation"? Save the latter, I just made those up, but I honestly think my examples accurately represent the ridiculous claims about consumerism and sports that LaFeber sprinkles liberally throughout his dumb book. And I certainly provided just as much proof for my claims as he did. My point is: LaFeber comes across as a cranky old out-of-touch academic who has never quite gotten a grasp on how anything in the real world works, for which he compensated by just claiming absurd, poorly-supported generalizations that I guess seem true enough from his vantage point. It is infuriating, and it makes the book hard to sit through.
The parts of this book that address economic systems are also strangely devoid of a central message or consistent moral framing. LaFeber clearly thinks that global capitalism is bad, but mostly the book gives you a large dose of "big corporations are bad" while being sparse on any details describing how that is the case. Further, it is unsettlingly capricious in its feelings towards some of the obvious drawbacks to corporate globalization. For instance, the book is surprisingly light on Nike et al.'s use of sweatshops, suggesting that Western disdain for such awful business practices might much be a product of our cultural norms, rather than of sincere concern for people being systemically exploited solely for corporate profits. He writes similarly about American concerns about the rights of foreign female workers. Simultaneously, though, the book goes on numerous, impassioned diatribes about how terrible it is that Nike and Michael Jordan export American ideals and values (think "valuing the 'self-made man'", egalitarianism, etc.) to the rest of the world. This is, to me, a strange issue to throw outrage at whilst concurrently waffling over whether or not sweatshops and sexual harassment in foreign factories are unequivocally morally reprehensible regardless of cultural context. Even after finishing the book, I never could glean a consistent, comprehensive ideological framework being argued for. The whole book is like this. It's weird.
However, all this gives a hint at LaFeber's M.O.: he thinks blithely obvious statements coupled with extremely narrow, circumstance-specific examples and sweeping generalizations are the same exact thing as actual data and evidence that plainly point to a given conclusion. Granted, it is not fair to say that history is explainable simply using impartial quantitative data and statistical analysis (as it is a qualitative discipline), but LaFeber reduces this to the absurd. His examples are divorced from the points he tries to make with them by several orders of magnitude. (For example, to support the thesis that global capitalism spread to an unprecedented level in the twentieth century, LaFeber used anecdotes about how satellites can broadcast information to (gasp) more than one single geographic region as primary evidence. Yeah.). Wholly, all the evidences he asserts price his claims lack relevance and even interdependence, and instead seem insular, redundant, irrelevant, and wantonly misapplied.
And then there's the 9/11 chapter. In the revised physical edition, LaFeber decided to write a new chapter describing how Al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks perfectly fit into his global capitalism thesis. (If you had the luck to purchase an eBook instead of the physical copy, you'll be spared this sinkhole of awful.) Basically, he argues that Al Qaeda is like a global company and that globalization caused 9/11. It's ridiculous, it's nonsensical, it's poorly-conceived and ill-thought-through, and it's insulting. Frankly, I can't believe the publisher even allowed this chapter to be printed. In my opinion, it is clearly unsourced garbage that all-but apologies for terrorism, equates bin Laden with normal Western businesspeople, and moves the blame of 9/11 onto a dumb incoherent narrative about globalization and away from, you know, terrorists. It's a festering, egregious false equivalency. To me, LaFeber no less than took 9/11 and exploited it for his own gain: this chapter was simply the shoehorning of a tragedy that affected almost every American into a means by which to funnel those people into buying or reading an otherwise unknown and unremarkable book.
My final issue with this book (and granted, an issue of principle rather than substance) lies in the prologue. (First of all-the "prologue"? That was clearly the answer to the Google search for "how do I make a boring introduction also sound unbearably pretentious?".) In it, amongst other unfathomably ridiculous things, LaFeber contends that it is "a short book". I would contend that Dr. LaFeber is insane. It is nearly 200 pages of dense pretentious prose that you have to read five times to glean any discernible meaning from whatsoever. Furthermore, like the DMV, it makes each second of your life feel like five days. And it makes you want to die. That LaFeber even thinks this constitutes "a short book" is absurd.
So, to conclude, I didn't like this book. That I took the time to write this extended rant should probably show you something. I wholeheartedly recommend that you do not read it under any circumstance, even if under derision. If you're still curious about the content, I'd suggest a macroeconomics textbook (less boring) or a televised basketball game (just as informative) instead, as you'd get a significantly better return on your investment. If you must read this book, though, please do so with caution, and don't say I didn't warn you.
April 6, 2020
A strange little book that attempts to link the Michael Jordan phenomenon with broader themes lamenting the triumph of global capitalism and the cultural domination and imperialism of the United States. The book fails in its objective however as the two stories are not successfully intertwined. Rather there are two separate and distinct pieces of work here, one a polemic against globalisation and the other the story of Michael Jordan and his commercial success primarily as an endorser.
There is a continuing ham-handed attempt to blend these two stories together but it never really works. Perhaps this is because Jordan throughout his career shied away from discussing these issues and therefore stands on neither one side or the other. Indeed in the final chapter of the text talking about the threat to global capitalism in the post 9-11 world the authour has basically given up trying to link Jordan into the story at all. Apart from a few lines concluding paragraphs that look as if the editor has insisted on having some MJ reference in the text there is very little about the basketball player. Indeed the book is ‘forced’ in the sense that these two topics are covered together, I guess the publishers surmised that a book about Michael Jordan was likely to sell more than one about the dangers of global capitalism.
Apart from this underlying fault in the book, the other problem is that there is simply not much new that the author adds either about MJ or about global capitalism. A guide to the career accomplishments and commercial success of MJ is given, but nothing that isnt readily available and much better written in dozens of other studies (see Halberstam for example). Similarly the sections on global capitalism which as one might expect covers the issues of cultural domination alongside the labour exploitation of firms like Nike provides not much new either. Apart from the lack of new material there are obvious factual errors both with regard to baskbetbal and global capitalism. LaFeber in writing of the Bull’s third championship suggested that now they had matched the great Celtic’s teams of the 60's (p.118) however the Celticws won 8 in a row and 11 out of 13. On page 163 he suggests that Hong Kong led the movements of controls on foreign capital - this is just wrong and could easily have been checked.
The reader would be far better served to read separate accounts of these phenomenon, Michael Jordan and Global Capitalism, rather than the disjointed effort presented here. On the other hand it may be true that many students of globalisation would prefer to read a book like this where the name Jordan and the Bulls occasionally pops up rather than a straight treatise on global capitalism.
There is a continuing ham-handed attempt to blend these two stories together but it never really works. Perhaps this is because Jordan throughout his career shied away from discussing these issues and therefore stands on neither one side or the other. Indeed in the final chapter of the text talking about the threat to global capitalism in the post 9-11 world the authour has basically given up trying to link Jordan into the story at all. Apart from a few lines concluding paragraphs that look as if the editor has insisted on having some MJ reference in the text there is very little about the basketball player. Indeed the book is ‘forced’ in the sense that these two topics are covered together, I guess the publishers surmised that a book about Michael Jordan was likely to sell more than one about the dangers of global capitalism.
Apart from this underlying fault in the book, the other problem is that there is simply not much new that the author adds either about MJ or about global capitalism. A guide to the career accomplishments and commercial success of MJ is given, but nothing that isnt readily available and much better written in dozens of other studies (see Halberstam for example). Similarly the sections on global capitalism which as one might expect covers the issues of cultural domination alongside the labour exploitation of firms like Nike provides not much new either. Apart from the lack of new material there are obvious factual errors both with regard to baskbetbal and global capitalism. LaFeber in writing of the Bull’s third championship suggested that now they had matched the great Celtic’s teams of the 60's (p.118) however the Celticws won 8 in a row and 11 out of 13. On page 163 he suggests that Hong Kong led the movements of controls on foreign capital - this is just wrong and could easily have been checked.
The reader would be far better served to read separate accounts of these phenomenon, Michael Jordan and Global Capitalism, rather than the disjointed effort presented here. On the other hand it may be true that many students of globalisation would prefer to read a book like this where the name Jordan and the Bulls occasionally pops up rather than a straight treatise on global capitalism.
March 25, 2024
This was a required read for my Sport's History class. I found it extremely interesting and really loved to learn about Jordan, The Dream Team, the development of basketball, and his indirect effects on global capitalism and commercialism.
HOWEVER, LaFeber stretched Jordan's correlations thin when he started blaming Jordan for the cultural and capitalistic boom that led to the 9/11 attacks. He also heavily criticized Jordan for failing to speak on national controversies such as racism, foreign abuse, and Al-Queda.
Yes, Jordan was a man with great influence, but its important to remember that he is no government official or political activist. He's a man who revolutionized a sport. Folks need to get off his back.
HOWEVER, LaFeber stretched Jordan's correlations thin when he started blaming Jordan for the cultural and capitalistic boom that led to the 9/11 attacks. He also heavily criticized Jordan for failing to speak on national controversies such as racism, foreign abuse, and Al-Queda.
Yes, Jordan was a man with great influence, but its important to remember that he is no government official or political activist. He's a man who revolutionized a sport. Folks need to get off his back.
April 14, 2019
This is a compact work which explores the rise of a new global economic order, over the career of Michael Jordan, and that of both Nike and the larger broadcasting media. The insight and the approach of the book is quite valuable to the reader. However, I have to take of one point out of five, because at certain points the book reads more like a history of basketball and Michael Jordan, than as a history of how sports based entertainment and transnational corporations have forged a new form of capitalism in the past 1970s world.
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July 4, 2021LaFeber uses the story of basketball and Michael Jordan's career to document how American capitalism, cultural imperialism, and globalization (particularly in global brands like Nike and media networks like CNN) collided in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, revealing the earlier roots of the 21st century's biggest themes and challenges.
May 31, 2019
interesting read but very boring. I had to read it for class and it just isn't my type of book. Please note that my lower rating has to do with personal interest rather than objective writing and its very important message on American Cultural Imperialism.
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November 20, 2023Read for US History
December 5, 2023
so basically what I’m hearing is Michael Jordan did 9/11
July 21, 2024
interesting, but inconsistent tone and the chapters felt somewhat disjointed
July 25, 2011
LaFeber uses his background as a highly respected Diplomatic historian (1998 winner of the Bancroft Prize) to use Basketball, Michael Jordan, and Nike (among other companies - also Ted Turner & CNN as well as Ruppert Murdoch) to explore the idea of globalization, US/western cultural hegemony and its connections to 9-11 and the growing hatred of US culture in some parts of the world. Although his last chapter on 9-11 is perhaps the most interesting in terms of the questions it raises, it is also the least substantiated. To be fair it was a 2002 addendum to a book that was first published in 1999, so there was no way of predicting the climactic turn of events that was to come. However, the author could have substantiated this claim retrospectively by also tying in other acts of what we now dub "terrorism" (i.e. first bombing of the WTC), and discussed in greater depth the warning signs of other cultures reacting to the spread/saturation of the US ideals. That said, it is an intriguing thesis that should be further explored and publicized.
Perhaps most importantly, LaFeber reminds us just how recent the technology we have come to rely on is, and how radically this technology has altered our lifestyles, down to the tinest detail.
An extreamly breezable read, this book worked well in the Undergrad class I TA on American Capitalism. It is certainly written in highly accessible prose and uses a popular topic that students find easy to relate.
Perhaps most importantly, LaFeber reminds us just how recent the technology we have come to rely on is, and how radically this technology has altered our lifestyles, down to the tinest detail.
An extreamly breezable read, this book worked well in the Undergrad class I TA on American Capitalism. It is certainly written in highly accessible prose and uses a popular topic that students find easy to relate.
October 6, 2015
Mason Tasset
Bauman- 6
Most people probably know Michael Jordan as an extraordinary athlete, but he is much more than that. Phil Jackson once said Jordan "had somehow transformed in the public mind from a great athlete to a sports deity". Fans from all over loved him and would even be seen "kneeling before the statue of Jordan that stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls". Many compared Michael Jordan to well known historical figures including Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire. As if that wasn't enough, "Time believed Jordan surpassed the Mona Lisa". That Time article stated that the "modern life suffers from the Mona Lisa complex. The idea that when you finally see a legendary work of art, it inevitably disappoints, appearing somehow smaller ... than you had imagined it. Except Michael Jordan". Jordan was seen as an unstoppable man on and off the court. Before him and since his retirement, there have been very few, if any players that could compare to him.
Bauman- 6
Most people probably know Michael Jordan as an extraordinary athlete, but he is much more than that. Phil Jackson once said Jordan "had somehow transformed in the public mind from a great athlete to a sports deity". Fans from all over loved him and would even be seen "kneeling before the statue of Jordan that stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls". Many compared Michael Jordan to well known historical figures including Louis Armstrong and Fred Astaire. As if that wasn't enough, "Time believed Jordan surpassed the Mona Lisa". That Time article stated that the "modern life suffers from the Mona Lisa complex. The idea that when you finally see a legendary work of art, it inevitably disappoints, appearing somehow smaller ... than you had imagined it. Except Michael Jordan". Jordan was seen as an unstoppable man on and off the court. Before him and since his retirement, there have been very few, if any players that could compare to him.
March 21, 2019
Nothing particularly great or bad about this book. A pretty standard left-ish critique of globalization and modern capitalism alongside a mini-biography of Michael Jordan as a figure of globalization and "cultural imperialism." Captures the economic and ideological zeitgeist of the late 20th century pretty well and makes an interesting case for re-periodizing this era. Short and effective, even if sometimes the political tilt goes a little far. Just didn't provoke a strong reaction in me either way; maybe this critique is just so mainstream now the buzz has worn off.
February 25, 2012
I had to read to book for class and I was pleasantly surprised with the ease of the prose. It didn't feel like a textbook, which is a nice reprise from the typical readings. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the a combine history of Nike, marketing technologies and Michael Jordan.
February 27, 2016
An INCREDIBLE look into how technology, media, and American culture changed the world, for good and ill. Detailed, in-depth, and fascinating. And most of all: relevant. Every problem brought into this book still applies to today. It's the easiest way to understand why the world works the way it does today.
October 4, 2008
Read this for class but really liked it. I'd love to see an updated edition now that the world is the way it is. I'm sure there's all sorts of new sports-related economic/sociological information that could be thrown at us.
June 24, 2008
Despite some rather glaring typos, this is a fascinating read. I never really gave a shit about basketball until reading this book. Very interesting insights into Nike, Turner, Jordan, and 9/11.
November 24, 2011
Interesting! Paints Michael Jordan in a bad light... which is sad because I always thought he was awesome... but now... not so much. haha
July 5, 2014
All LaFeber is good. Kind of dated at this point though. Would not use it for class probably. Do kids even know who Jordan is anymore?
May 16, 2015
It had some interesting points; it really made me think about my consumer habits.
November 18, 2015
Very good for what it is and what LaFeber set out to do. Perhaps a product of its times - and the chapter about 9/11 added on to later editions of the book is entirely out of place.
July 14, 2007
A few good points, with the typical pitfalls of leftist literature. Michael Jordon sucks, though.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews