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Introduction to International and Global Studies
This innovative introduction to international and global studies, updated and revised in a new edition, offers instructors in the social sciences and humanities a core textbook for teaching undergraduates in this rapidly growing field. Encompassing the latest scholarship in what is a markedly interdisciplinary endeavor, Shawn Smallman and Kimberley Brown introduce key concepts, themes, and issues and then examine each in lively chapters on essential topics that include the history of globalization; economic, political, and cultural globalization; security, energy, and development; health; agriculture and food; and the environment. Within these topics, the authors explore such timely and pressing subjects as commodity chains, labor (including present-day slavery), human rights, multinational corporations, and the connections among them.
New to this edition:
* The latest research on debates over privacy rights and surveillance since Edward Snowden's disclosures
* Updates on significant political and economic developments throughout the world, including a new case study of European Union, Icelandic, and Greek responses to the 2008 fiscal crisis
* The newest information about the rise of fracking, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the decline of the Peak Oil movement, and climate change, including the latter's effects on the Arctic and Antarctica
* A dedicated website with authors' blog and a teaching tab with syllabi, class activities, and well-designed, classroom-tested resources
* An updated teacher's manual available online, including sample examination questions, additional resources for each chapter, and special assistance for teaching ESL students
* Updated career advice for international studies majors
New to this edition:
* The latest research on debates over privacy rights and surveillance since Edward Snowden's disclosures
* Updates on significant political and economic developments throughout the world, including a new case study of European Union, Icelandic, and Greek responses to the 2008 fiscal crisis
* The newest information about the rise of fracking, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the decline of the Peak Oil movement, and climate change, including the latter's effects on the Arctic and Antarctica
* A dedicated website with authors' blog and a teaching tab with syllabi, class activities, and well-designed, classroom-tested resources
* An updated teacher's manual available online, including sample examination questions, additional resources for each chapter, and special assistance for teaching ESL students
* Updated career advice for international studies majors
- GenresNonfiction
408 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2014
25 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 26, 2019
For a book about "International" and "Global" studies, this was rife with blatant occidental bias.
Smallman & Brown spare no words describing the problems, human rights abuses, and crimes of foreign countries and only ever barely mention in passing (if they bother mentioning it at all) the same crimes or complicity of the crimes of Western countries. If this happened once or twice, they could be excused, but it is a recurring theme throughout the book and sets a very particular tone.
Further, there were a few instances in which they would state something without providing any examples or evidence. Right or wrong (in one case they were demonstrably wrong), not backing up your points is poor writing and certainly not academic.
One of the biggest problems of the book is that S&B fail horrendously to adequately simplify complex problems. They frequently omit very important facts and points of view which create inadequate framing of the topics. For example, they spend an entire section talking about torture but frame it exclusively as a moral problem. Nowhere do they mention that it has been extensively documented that torture does not work. Inadequate framing like this will only make an uninformed person misinformed, rather than more informed.
Worst of all, in their misplaced obsession with providing a "balanced" view, they spend a significant portion of the "Environment" chapter rehashing anti-environment views, giving an unwarranted amount of space, time, and platform for views that demonstrably anti-science and not grounded in reality. A far better approach would have been to lay out the threats to the environment, and discuss the problems and short-comings of the current solutions, rather than just restating anti-environment propaganda and insufficiently countering it.
This is one of the worst non-fiction books I have ever read. If you know nothing about global issues you will come out more misinformed than you were before you read it.
Smallman & Brown spare no words describing the problems, human rights abuses, and crimes of foreign countries and only ever barely mention in passing (if they bother mentioning it at all) the same crimes or complicity of the crimes of Western countries. If this happened once or twice, they could be excused, but it is a recurring theme throughout the book and sets a very particular tone.
Further, there were a few instances in which they would state something without providing any examples or evidence. Right or wrong (in one case they were demonstrably wrong), not backing up your points is poor writing and certainly not academic.
One of the biggest problems of the book is that S&B fail horrendously to adequately simplify complex problems. They frequently omit very important facts and points of view which create inadequate framing of the topics. For example, they spend an entire section talking about torture but frame it exclusively as a moral problem. Nowhere do they mention that it has been extensively documented that torture does not work. Inadequate framing like this will only make an uninformed person misinformed, rather than more informed.
Worst of all, in their misplaced obsession with providing a "balanced" view, they spend a significant portion of the "Environment" chapter rehashing anti-environment views, giving an unwarranted amount of space, time, and platform for views that demonstrably anti-science and not grounded in reality. A far better approach would have been to lay out the threats to the environment, and discuss the problems and short-comings of the current solutions, rather than just restating anti-environment propaganda and insufficiently countering it.
This is one of the worst non-fiction books I have ever read. If you know nothing about global issues you will come out more misinformed than you were before you read it.
January 24, 2016
I got this book because the professor asked us to.The book was barely useful in understanding globalization, as I was confused trying to understand concepts in some chapters.Having no background in international relations, i'd say this is not the book you'd want to buy in order to learn.
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November 20, 2025dnf for international studies
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews