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From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives
The story of globalization, the most powerful force in history, as told through the life and times of ten people who changed the world by their singular, spectacular accomplishments. This is the first book to look at the history of globalization through the lens of individuals who did something transformative, as opposed to describing globalization through trends, policies, or particular industries. From Silk to Silicon tells the story of who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it and how their achievements continue to shape our world today. They include: • Genghis Khan, who united east and west by conquest and by opening new trade routes built on groundbreaking transportation, communications, and management innovations. • Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who arose from an oppressive Jewish ghetto to establish the most powerful bank the world has seen, and ushered in an era of global finance. • Cyrus Field, who became the father of global communications by leading the effort to build the transatlantic telegraph, the forerunner to global radio, TV, and the worldwide Internet. • Margaret Thatcher, whose controversial policies opened the gusher of substantially free markets that linked economies across borders. • Andy Grove, a Hungarian refugee from the Nazis who built the company—Intel—that figured out how to manufacture complex computer chips on a mass, commercial scale and laid the foundation for Silicon Valley’s computer revolution. Through these stories Jeffrey E. Garten finds the common links between these figure and probes critical questions including: How much influence can any one person have in fundamentally changing the world? And how have past trends in globalization affected the present and how will they shape the future? From Silk to Silicon is an essential book to understanding the past—and the future—of the most powerful force of our times.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2016
328 people are currently reading
2599 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey E. Garten
13 books36 followersJeffrey E. Garten teaches courses on the global economy at the Yale School of Management, where he was formerly the dean. He was the undersecretary of commerce for international trade in the Clinton administration, and before that a managing director of the Blackstone Group and Lehman Brothers on Wall Street.
His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Harvard Business Review, and he is the author of five books on global economics and politics. He is has been a frequent speaker around the world on global politics, global economics, and global leadership.His new book, From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives, will be available on March 1, 2016.
His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Harvard Business Review, and he is the author of five books on global economics and politics. He is has been a frequent speaker around the world on global politics, global economics, and global leadership.His new book, From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives, will be available on March 1, 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
January 22, 2018
Have you heard about the study in which judges give longer sentences to people who commit similar crimes, depending on whether or not the judge has had lunch yet? I feel like that happens with my book reviews sometimes. This is one of those times.
I cannot quite be sure if this book was not as good as The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan or if I was just less focused. It started out strong with tales of Temujin (Later Named Genghis Khan) that gave me that dopamine rush I always hope for when reading books. After reading the history of From Silk to Silicon, from the perspective of 10 key people who made the world, I thought I was in for a thrilling journey. Temujin had a hella brutal childhood. Somehow, even though I had read about him, I guess I was missing some pretty significant detail. He killed his half brother for eating more than his share of the food rations. He was kept prisoner for years with a collar around his neck and his body chained. It sounded unbearable and really made me wonder what happens to a brain that is treated in such a manner during a crucial time of brain development. The author went on to discuss Geghis Khan's later policies as a leader of the greatest empire in the world and drew connections to those policies and his early childhood experiences. What an incredible section! It made me really want to analyze Genghis Khan in depth. I can't stop thinking about it. If the whole book had been like this first section, I would have loved it.
As the book progressed, the rest of the famous 10 historical figures were far less interesting. To be sure, there were some interesting bits of information for each person, but each section read more like a report and less like something that excited my inner soul. One of the historical figures was Robert Clive, who is probably one of my favorite people to think about because he was such a terribly entitled human being. I remember being shocked at the corruptness of his actions that allowed him to steal from mass groups of people and become the richest person in England. When Peter Frankopan wrote about Clive, he put his story in a larger context, really making his reader aware of the devastation of Clive's actions on the very lives of the people in India and how Clive's actions led to the Boston Tea Party (mind-blowing). I was obsessed with Frankopan's depiction for months. Garten's depiction was far less memorable.
The rest of the biographies are similar. There is definitely something to be learned about Prince Henry the Navigator, Mayer Amshel Rothchild,
Cyrus Field (this seemed the least interesting of all), John D. Rockefeller,
Jean Monnet, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove (this was new information for me, which made this section one of my favorites), Deng Xiaoping but those biographies were just ok.
I cannot quite be sure if this book was not as good as The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan or if I was just less focused. It started out strong with tales of Temujin (Later Named Genghis Khan) that gave me that dopamine rush I always hope for when reading books. After reading the history of From Silk to Silicon, from the perspective of 10 key people who made the world, I thought I was in for a thrilling journey. Temujin had a hella brutal childhood. Somehow, even though I had read about him, I guess I was missing some pretty significant detail. He killed his half brother for eating more than his share of the food rations. He was kept prisoner for years with a collar around his neck and his body chained. It sounded unbearable and really made me wonder what happens to a brain that is treated in such a manner during a crucial time of brain development. The author went on to discuss Geghis Khan's later policies as a leader of the greatest empire in the world and drew connections to those policies and his early childhood experiences. What an incredible section! It made me really want to analyze Genghis Khan in depth. I can't stop thinking about it. If the whole book had been like this first section, I would have loved it.
As the book progressed, the rest of the famous 10 historical figures were far less interesting. To be sure, there were some interesting bits of information for each person, but each section read more like a report and less like something that excited my inner soul. One of the historical figures was Robert Clive, who is probably one of my favorite people to think about because he was such a terribly entitled human being. I remember being shocked at the corruptness of his actions that allowed him to steal from mass groups of people and become the richest person in England. When Peter Frankopan wrote about Clive, he put his story in a larger context, really making his reader aware of the devastation of Clive's actions on the very lives of the people in India and how Clive's actions led to the Boston Tea Party (mind-blowing). I was obsessed with Frankopan's depiction for months. Garten's depiction was far less memorable.
The rest of the biographies are similar. There is definitely something to be learned about Prince Henry the Navigator, Mayer Amshel Rothchild,
Cyrus Field (this seemed the least interesting of all), John D. Rockefeller,
Jean Monnet, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove (this was new information for me, which made this section one of my favorites), Deng Xiaoping but those biographies were just ok.
April 10, 2016
(Note: I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads.)
Sort of a shared biography, with one chapter each about 10 historical figures (ranging from Genghis Khan to more recent figures such as Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher) whose actions resulted in the world becoming more interconnected. With only about 30 pages or so devoted to each of its subjects, the book feels a bit shallow and unsatisfying, although that shouldn't be regarded as a defect; the author isn't trying to provide an in-depth analysis here. Consider this book more of an introduction to an understanding of the historical forces of globalization, using these 10 people as a window.
A bigger problem is the author's unwillingness to deal fully with the negative aspects of these people's legacies. These people may have all done things which made the world a better place in the long run, but many of them also created a great deal of human suffering and even death. In most cases, Garten only acknowledges this very briefly, before returning to the task of singing his subjects' praises. It's an open question whether the positive aspects of some of these individuals' legacies outweigh the negative; Garten says that he believes this to be the case, but never tries to build that case by laying both sides of the question before the reader.
And maybe that would have been beyond the scope of a book which, at 360-ish pages of text, already feels too short to do its subject justice. It's not a bad book, and there's a lot of interesting information here; some of its subjects (such as Robert Clive and Jean Monnet) are much less well-known than their historical impact warrants. Just be aware, when reading it, that it can't be considered a balanced historical analysis.
Sort of a shared biography, with one chapter each about 10 historical figures (ranging from Genghis Khan to more recent figures such as Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher) whose actions resulted in the world becoming more interconnected. With only about 30 pages or so devoted to each of its subjects, the book feels a bit shallow and unsatisfying, although that shouldn't be regarded as a defect; the author isn't trying to provide an in-depth analysis here. Consider this book more of an introduction to an understanding of the historical forces of globalization, using these 10 people as a window.
A bigger problem is the author's unwillingness to deal fully with the negative aspects of these people's legacies. These people may have all done things which made the world a better place in the long run, but many of them also created a great deal of human suffering and even death. In most cases, Garten only acknowledges this very briefly, before returning to the task of singing his subjects' praises. It's an open question whether the positive aspects of some of these individuals' legacies outweigh the negative; Garten says that he believes this to be the case, but never tries to build that case by laying both sides of the question before the reader.
And maybe that would have been beyond the scope of a book which, at 360-ish pages of text, already feels too short to do its subject justice. It's not a bad book, and there's a lot of interesting information here; some of its subjects (such as Robert Clive and Jean Monnet) are much less well-known than their historical impact warrants. Just be aware, when reading it, that it can't be considered a balanced historical analysis.
January 28, 2019
I'm pretty pro-globalization, though I am beginning to see more and more negative effects. On balance, it's still positive. I also love history and economics (in fact, I think the review for this book might have been in The Economist), so I thought this would be right up my alley. Even I am wrong, on occasion. If this was not THE most boring book I have ever read, it was definitely in the top five. The book is organized as ten brief biographies (they really didn't feel that brief, though) of people the author feels were instrumental in the development of globalization. The people named were Genghis Khan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Robert Clive, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Cyrus Field, John D. Rockefeller, Jean Monnet, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove, and Deng Xiaoping. I was fully convinced of the role of Khan, Prince Henry, Field, Monnet, and Grove in promoting globalization, whether intentionally or otherwise. Garten's arguments I found to be unconvincing in regards to the other individuals. Garten's argument that Thatcher promoted globalization, for example, seemed to revolve around the fact that she defeated unions and privatized a lot of industries. Economic liberalization (using "liberal" in the traditional, rather than right or left sense) is not the same thing as globalization. His arguments for Deng's role in globalization were similar. I don't even feel like addressing the other personalities as this was so boring that I don't want to spend more time on it. Maybe it would have been enjoyable to someone else, but definitely not for me.
May 3, 2020
This glib, superficially researched celebration of globalization via the portraits of ten “heroic hedgehogs” is an incidental encomium to racism, enslavement, colonialism, imperialism, the excesses of economic exploitation, and the hegemony of the wealthy over the poor: collateral damage as it were. It is a book Jesus and Buddha would despise. And the WTO would love. Is the author morally blind?
October 9, 2017
"The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward." Winston Churchill
The book was an amazing feast of history crammed into an entertaining book. The writer has chosen 10 men and women from throughout the history who in the course of their lives either intentionally or unintentionally helped establish the modern globalized world as we know it now.
The writer starts with Genghis Khan. A small boy who lived with as an outcast roaming the Mongolian wilderness with his family after the death of his father. At the age of 13 when he found out his brother was hoarding food and Genghis killed him. Slowly and gradually after one small conquest to another, he rose to power. With considerable men and with the substantial victories under his belt he united all the Mongolian tribes and declared himself as the Khan of Mongolian tribes. After that, he started invading neighboring Chinese lands capturing and killing anyone who mattered and taking others as slaves. His ventures continued and when his ambassadors were killed by the Islamic Caliphate he decided to march against the Islamic empire.
Genghis would not have thought of capturing so much land but the bounty was plentiful and slowly the Mongolian royalty got used to the new forms of luxury.
The cause of Genghis Khan's death is still unknown and so is his place of burial. Rumor has it that all the men who dug his grave and laid him to rest were killed as to conceal anything related to his death.
Still, after so many years nobody knows where he has been buried.
Genghis Khan's descendants mainly Kublai Khan farther spread the Mongolian empire and set social and economic laws that hampered growth and trade.
The silk route that Genghis Khan established paved the way for trade to flourish and parts of the world interconnect in ways that were unknown before. Many merchants most notably Marco Polo, Ibn-e-Battuta(an Islamic traveler and trader) and others were famous for their travels to the East Asia while documenting their experiences.
And just an FYI Netflix has a TV Show named Marco Polo, where he plays an influential role on Kublai Khan's court.
Prince Henry of Portugal better known as Henry the Navigator. He was the third child of King John 1. Henry led many expeditions in around various destinations around Portugal shattering previously held beliefs and furthering civilization reach to areas previously held impossible to reach. While the personality of Henry was questionable as he led trade expeditions that dealt trading and enslaving slaves.
He did not exactly travel in all expeditions by himself and usually financed and arranged for different expeditions.
But his expeditions opened up new routes and redefined trade paving way for a new interconnected globalized world.
Robert Clive joined the East India Company as a junior clerk but soon rose up to the ranks of most prominent figures. His victories and management initiatives one after another set the stage for the United Kingdom to set its strong footholds in the Indian subcontinent. Clive came and went back to and from Indian subcontinent three times, each time increasing his worth and recognition. Meanwhile, in his ventures, he not only did work for the East India company but was also able to amass a considerable wealth for himself as well. The infrastructure that Clive set enabled the produce and merchants to flow freely between the Indian subcontinent and the British empire. Cloth, rugs, spices, opium, tea and a lot other exchanged hands of hundreds of traders and traveled thousands of miles. Thus bringing physically separated world nearer and nearer. The end unfortunately for Robert Clive was not a good one as on his last return questions started to arise about his fortune and success and parliament opened an inquiry into his and companies practices in India. Clive ventured into melancholy and finally took his own life.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild started his life in ghettos of Frankfurt which comprised basically of Jew families. Slowly Mayer started to offer financial services and gradually grew his business into an empire. Mayer started as a coin dealer and soon gained the patronage of influential people.
Mayer provided financial services to countries and businesses alike and sometimes even funded both sides of the war, making fortunes in between. Mayer helped establish to what is known as the bond market and devised an efficient system of its time to send and receive information cutting communication times and gaining the competitive advantage over others. He also with the help of his sons devised a code based communication and used redundant methods for information decimation. Mayer used arbitrage because of the efficient communication system and amassed huge profits and rose to the ranks no one ever had imagined before. In the end, he was able to set establish the foundations of the modern banking system as we know it and helped flow and use of funds across the borders bringing the world closer.
Cyrus Field was an American businessman who played the vital role in laying the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic ocean. The voyage of his achievements was not all fun, he was able to finance and start the venture but he failed no less than 4 times and in turn had to face tremendous pressure. In the end, he was able to achieve his dream and connect the world that was unheard of before. The communication time went down from weeks and months to a few minutes and the information started flowing through the cable fast. Soon the cables started to be laid around the world. His company's shares rose and he was able to cash in and make a good fortune for himself. In the end, though he started making bad investment decisions and lost almost everything at the end of life.
John D. Rockefeller
Jean Monnet
Margaret Thatcher
Andrew Grove
Deng Xiaoping
Are the few other important men from the history who have been discussed.
The mood of the book is light and it was an enjoying read.
The book was an amazing feast of history crammed into an entertaining book. The writer has chosen 10 men and women from throughout the history who in the course of their lives either intentionally or unintentionally helped establish the modern globalized world as we know it now.
The writer starts with Genghis Khan. A small boy who lived with as an outcast roaming the Mongolian wilderness with his family after the death of his father. At the age of 13 when he found out his brother was hoarding food and Genghis killed him. Slowly and gradually after one small conquest to another, he rose to power. With considerable men and with the substantial victories under his belt he united all the Mongolian tribes and declared himself as the Khan of Mongolian tribes. After that, he started invading neighboring Chinese lands capturing and killing anyone who mattered and taking others as slaves. His ventures continued and when his ambassadors were killed by the Islamic Caliphate he decided to march against the Islamic empire.
Genghis would not have thought of capturing so much land but the bounty was plentiful and slowly the Mongolian royalty got used to the new forms of luxury.
The cause of Genghis Khan's death is still unknown and so is his place of burial. Rumor has it that all the men who dug his grave and laid him to rest were killed as to conceal anything related to his death.
Still, after so many years nobody knows where he has been buried.
Genghis Khan's descendants mainly Kublai Khan farther spread the Mongolian empire and set social and economic laws that hampered growth and trade.
The silk route that Genghis Khan established paved the way for trade to flourish and parts of the world interconnect in ways that were unknown before. Many merchants most notably Marco Polo, Ibn-e-Battuta(an Islamic traveler and trader) and others were famous for their travels to the East Asia while documenting their experiences.
And just an FYI Netflix has a TV Show named Marco Polo, where he plays an influential role on Kublai Khan's court.
Prince Henry of Portugal better known as Henry the Navigator. He was the third child of King John 1. Henry led many expeditions in around various destinations around Portugal shattering previously held beliefs and furthering civilization reach to areas previously held impossible to reach. While the personality of Henry was questionable as he led trade expeditions that dealt trading and enslaving slaves.
He did not exactly travel in all expeditions by himself and usually financed and arranged for different expeditions.
But his expeditions opened up new routes and redefined trade paving way for a new interconnected globalized world.
Robert Clive joined the East India Company as a junior clerk but soon rose up to the ranks of most prominent figures. His victories and management initiatives one after another set the stage for the United Kingdom to set its strong footholds in the Indian subcontinent. Clive came and went back to and from Indian subcontinent three times, each time increasing his worth and recognition. Meanwhile, in his ventures, he not only did work for the East India company but was also able to amass a considerable wealth for himself as well. The infrastructure that Clive set enabled the produce and merchants to flow freely between the Indian subcontinent and the British empire. Cloth, rugs, spices, opium, tea and a lot other exchanged hands of hundreds of traders and traveled thousands of miles. Thus bringing physically separated world nearer and nearer. The end unfortunately for Robert Clive was not a good one as on his last return questions started to arise about his fortune and success and parliament opened an inquiry into his and companies practices in India. Clive ventured into melancholy and finally took his own life.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild started his life in ghettos of Frankfurt which comprised basically of Jew families. Slowly Mayer started to offer financial services and gradually grew his business into an empire. Mayer started as a coin dealer and soon gained the patronage of influential people.
Mayer provided financial services to countries and businesses alike and sometimes even funded both sides of the war, making fortunes in between. Mayer helped establish to what is known as the bond market and devised an efficient system of its time to send and receive information cutting communication times and gaining the competitive advantage over others. He also with the help of his sons devised a code based communication and used redundant methods for information decimation. Mayer used arbitrage because of the efficient communication system and amassed huge profits and rose to the ranks no one ever had imagined before. In the end, he was able to set establish the foundations of the modern banking system as we know it and helped flow and use of funds across the borders bringing the world closer.
Cyrus Field was an American businessman who played the vital role in laying the first transatlantic cable across the Atlantic ocean. The voyage of his achievements was not all fun, he was able to finance and start the venture but he failed no less than 4 times and in turn had to face tremendous pressure. In the end, he was able to achieve his dream and connect the world that was unheard of before. The communication time went down from weeks and months to a few minutes and the information started flowing through the cable fast. Soon the cables started to be laid around the world. His company's shares rose and he was able to cash in and make a good fortune for himself. In the end, though he started making bad investment decisions and lost almost everything at the end of life.
John D. Rockefeller
Jean Monnet
Margaret Thatcher
Andrew Grove
Deng Xiaoping
Are the few other important men from the history who have been discussed.
The mood of the book is light and it was an enjoying read.
June 19, 2016
I tend to think that we are living in the most global age ever and my take on global government often harkens back to the science fiction books I have always enjoyed so much, so my construct tends to actually be governance of the galaxy. In The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov the Galactic Empire exists but it is on its way out. Preparations have already been made to train brilliant humans who will bring the Empire back from the Dark Ages into which it has been plunged. In Dune by Frank Herbert we have the Spacer’s Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the noble houses in a feudal society with everyone owing allegiance to the Padishah Emperor. In Star Wars we know that there is a rebel alliance at war with the empire and prequels fill in the backstory showing us a government full of corruption, swollen, unwieldy, and divided.
So I often try to imagine what our government might be like if we did have a global government. I can imagine a system where we keep our individual nations but belong to some overarching body that coordinates everything and keeps a more and more complex world ticking along smoothly and peacefully (which you would think might be the United Nations, except that this idea makes some people paranoid). I realize that this is as much science fiction right now as any of my old beloved sci-fi books, but there is a corner of my mind that believes that we could possibly pull this off (a very optimistic corner of my mind).
But, Jeffrey E. Garten the author of From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization through Ten Extraordinary Lives does not see globalization as something to be achieved in the future if we ever get our act together. He feels that people on this planet have been making the world smaller and more connected for centuries and he doesn’t even go back as far as the Roman Empire. He goes back to Genghis Khan (1162-1227) ravaging his way across most of Asia and even perhaps into a swath of Europe conquering and killing out of motives very like vengeance but also mixing cultures along the way, sending beautiful objects and bright people to live in the peaceful parts of his empire and setting up the trade routes that became the very well-traveled Silk Road.
He goes on to talk about nine more people who have connected parts of the globe and made it easier for goods, services, and people to wander further and/or faster or even to stay in one place and still connect with distant corners of the planet. He includes Prince Henry the “Navigator” (although he believes that name is a misnomer), too young a son to inherit a kingdom but driven to find his niche in Portugal and perhaps his legacy. He begins as a conqueror, continues as a sponsor of explorations, and sadly winds up bringing slaves to Europe from Africa.
We have Cyrus Field who tried time and time again until he devised a system that worked to lay a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable from Newfoundland to England allowing messages to travel in minutes rather than weeks and months. Garten tells us about a Jewish banker who went home to the Jewish ghetto each night but was trusted to bring funds and investment money to and from rich and even royal men all over Europe and England. He tells us how Mayer Amschel Rothschild continued to live in his old neighborhood even as he founded banks in all of the important European cities and sent his sons out to run them. Would we have a modern banking system without him? Maybe, but it might not have gotten off to such a prosperous start.
Even Margaret Thatcher, a Prime Minister who people love to hate, is given credit for breaking up socialism in England and sponsoring free trade, things which ended what might have been a long-standing recession in Great Britain, at least for a time. And he tells us about Andrew Grove, eventual CEO of Microsoft, with his grasp of detail and his apparently inborn work ethic who revolutionized the microchip production industry when no one else seemed to be able to manufacture microchips that had the necessary qualities of consistency and usability.
There are a few others I did not name (great book, you should read it) but one of his main points was about what these folks had in common. They did not set out to contribute to the overall globalization of the world. They were not even always people who you would want to be in the path of, they could be cruel, they were all extremely determined, and their goals were often quite narrow, but offered out-sized consequences, sometimes deliberate, sometimes not.
So it seems all our talk about globalization in the 21st century needs to be placed in the context of all the connections made on our planet which began long before any of us existed. In other words, there is a historical context in which modern globalization is a continuation of a human tendency, rather than an innovation that is just coming into existence. Who will be the extraordinary individual who takes the baton and runs the next lap? Is this person already here, or far in the future? Only hindsight will tell. It could be you.
So I often try to imagine what our government might be like if we did have a global government. I can imagine a system where we keep our individual nations but belong to some overarching body that coordinates everything and keeps a more and more complex world ticking along smoothly and peacefully (which you would think might be the United Nations, except that this idea makes some people paranoid). I realize that this is as much science fiction right now as any of my old beloved sci-fi books, but there is a corner of my mind that believes that we could possibly pull this off (a very optimistic corner of my mind).
But, Jeffrey E. Garten the author of From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization through Ten Extraordinary Lives does not see globalization as something to be achieved in the future if we ever get our act together. He feels that people on this planet have been making the world smaller and more connected for centuries and he doesn’t even go back as far as the Roman Empire. He goes back to Genghis Khan (1162-1227) ravaging his way across most of Asia and even perhaps into a swath of Europe conquering and killing out of motives very like vengeance but also mixing cultures along the way, sending beautiful objects and bright people to live in the peaceful parts of his empire and setting up the trade routes that became the very well-traveled Silk Road.
He goes on to talk about nine more people who have connected parts of the globe and made it easier for goods, services, and people to wander further and/or faster or even to stay in one place and still connect with distant corners of the planet. He includes Prince Henry the “Navigator” (although he believes that name is a misnomer), too young a son to inherit a kingdom but driven to find his niche in Portugal and perhaps his legacy. He begins as a conqueror, continues as a sponsor of explorations, and sadly winds up bringing slaves to Europe from Africa.
We have Cyrus Field who tried time and time again until he devised a system that worked to lay a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable from Newfoundland to England allowing messages to travel in minutes rather than weeks and months. Garten tells us about a Jewish banker who went home to the Jewish ghetto each night but was trusted to bring funds and investment money to and from rich and even royal men all over Europe and England. He tells us how Mayer Amschel Rothschild continued to live in his old neighborhood even as he founded banks in all of the important European cities and sent his sons out to run them. Would we have a modern banking system without him? Maybe, but it might not have gotten off to such a prosperous start.
Even Margaret Thatcher, a Prime Minister who people love to hate, is given credit for breaking up socialism in England and sponsoring free trade, things which ended what might have been a long-standing recession in Great Britain, at least for a time. And he tells us about Andrew Grove, eventual CEO of Microsoft, with his grasp of detail and his apparently inborn work ethic who revolutionized the microchip production industry when no one else seemed to be able to manufacture microchips that had the necessary qualities of consistency and usability.
There are a few others I did not name (great book, you should read it) but one of his main points was about what these folks had in common. They did not set out to contribute to the overall globalization of the world. They were not even always people who you would want to be in the path of, they could be cruel, they were all extremely determined, and their goals were often quite narrow, but offered out-sized consequences, sometimes deliberate, sometimes not.
So it seems all our talk about globalization in the 21st century needs to be placed in the context of all the connections made on our planet which began long before any of us existed. In other words, there is a historical context in which modern globalization is a continuation of a human tendency, rather than an innovation that is just coming into existence. Who will be the extraordinary individual who takes the baton and runs the next lap? Is this person already here, or far in the future? Only hindsight will tell. It could be you.
September 11, 2019
"The characters in this book do not validate the great man theory of history, as articulated in the nineteenth century historian Thomas Carlyle, who said, 'The history of the world is but the biography of great men'". Indeed. The book is about those that were not born to make history but made it. However, Garten does admit that "Serendipity was a guiding life of these accidental globalists". They were like "hedgehogs" that "refused to accept failure" and demonstrated "resilience in the face of daunting setbacks". Deng Xiaoping's reforms couldn't have been better described :" Deng's reforms were a mixture of Vladimir Lenin's prescription for a tightly organized state and Milton Friedman's infatuation with free markets". The author uses the famous quote of Deng to characterize this leader, "It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long it catches the mouse it is a good cat". The book is extremely well researched. One may disagree with some of those that have been presented as harbingers of globalization but all those that have been listed did make enormous contribution towards making the world a globalized one. There are some extremely relevant and interesting quotes from those gentlemen that mattered in the evolution of a globalized world. The quote from Michael Dell stands out, "Ideas are a commodity. Execution is not".
April 17, 2016
In all such books where a small number of historical figures are selected for profiling there is a lot of room for debate over the ten selected. The basis of the selection here is the impact that the people had over the advance of globalization and those selected are:
*) Genghis Khan
*) Prince Henry
*) Robert Clive
*) Mayer Amschel Rothschild
*) Cyrus Field
*) John D. Rockefeller
*) Jean Monnet
*) Margaret Thatcher
*) Andrew Grove
*) Deng Xiaoping
There is no question that all of the selections had a dramatic effect on the trend towards the international interdependence called globalization. People not thoroughly schooled in history may at first glance not understand why some of these people made the list. Once you read their profiles there will be no doubt in your mind that they were a major player.
In these deep dives into the actions of these people and their consequences, the reader will learn aspects that generally do not make it into the history books. For example, all students learn about the “Mongol hordes” that killed everyone that opposed them. Yet, few learn that Genghis Khan also established an efficient communication system that spanned thousands of miles and that he developed a knowledge base that led to technical advances as well as the dramatic spread of learning from the Pacific shores of Asia to Eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf.
As a follower of history and technical advancement, I was pleased to see the inclusion of Cyrus Field in this collection. One of the most amazing historical facts was the role of the telegraph in speeding up communications. When the Trans-Atlantic cable was finally laid down and functional in 1866 it took only seven minutes for a message from Queen Victoria to reach the U. S. President. A little more than 50 years earlier the Battle of New Orleans was fought well after a peace treaty was signed due to the slow pace of communications. The laying of the Trans-Atlantic cable was also an instance where the technology had to be invented as the project was being done.
The final chapter contains some interesting insights into the mentality of people that change the world. Most of these people had a major streak of ruthlessness in the persona. There is the quote from the nineteenth-century British historian Lord Acton, “Great men are almost always bad.” Alter it to remove the sexist bias and it is the best short summary of how these people acted to change the world.
This book was made available for free for review purposes.
*) Genghis Khan
*) Prince Henry
*) Robert Clive
*) Mayer Amschel Rothschild
*) Cyrus Field
*) John D. Rockefeller
*) Jean Monnet
*) Margaret Thatcher
*) Andrew Grove
*) Deng Xiaoping
There is no question that all of the selections had a dramatic effect on the trend towards the international interdependence called globalization. People not thoroughly schooled in history may at first glance not understand why some of these people made the list. Once you read their profiles there will be no doubt in your mind that they were a major player.
In these deep dives into the actions of these people and their consequences, the reader will learn aspects that generally do not make it into the history books. For example, all students learn about the “Mongol hordes” that killed everyone that opposed them. Yet, few learn that Genghis Khan also established an efficient communication system that spanned thousands of miles and that he developed a knowledge base that led to technical advances as well as the dramatic spread of learning from the Pacific shores of Asia to Eastern Europe to the Persian Gulf.
As a follower of history and technical advancement, I was pleased to see the inclusion of Cyrus Field in this collection. One of the most amazing historical facts was the role of the telegraph in speeding up communications. When the Trans-Atlantic cable was finally laid down and functional in 1866 it took only seven minutes for a message from Queen Victoria to reach the U. S. President. A little more than 50 years earlier the Battle of New Orleans was fought well after a peace treaty was signed due to the slow pace of communications. The laying of the Trans-Atlantic cable was also an instance where the technology had to be invented as the project was being done.
The final chapter contains some interesting insights into the mentality of people that change the world. Most of these people had a major streak of ruthlessness in the persona. There is the quote from the nineteenth-century British historian Lord Acton, “Great men are almost always bad.” Alter it to remove the sexist bias and it is the best short summary of how these people acted to change the world.
This book was made available for free for review purposes.
June 9, 2018
Like Simon Winchester's book on the pacific, this book hits in some spots and misses in others. While some of the biographies in the book really do show how they connected the world and changed the way things happen today, Mr. Garten I believe has a deep crush on some of the others that he had included. The sections on John Rockefeller and Margaret Thatcher seem to have been ghost written by someone other than him because there is no way that one can write such stunning reviews of those two and not include all of their faults that made them the legends they are today. Especially for Lady Thatcher, he never really shows how she was great, instead crediting the Falkland's War with her rise instead of the policies she enacted to make Britain the way it is today.
Good read, but some chapters missed the mark.
Good read, but some chapters missed the mark.
November 30, 2019
Fantastic read. This is ten books in one, literally.
This is the author’s take on the ten people who historically brought a positive and consequential changes to globalization. Nine men and one woman (Thatcher).
Interestingly the first and last chapter were Chinese, Genghis Khan and Deng.
All others were European (Rockefeller of ancestry)
Banking, colonial exploration, democratic European unification, computer expansion, instant international communications, etc
This is the author’s take on the ten people who historically brought a positive and consequential changes to globalization. Nine men and one woman (Thatcher).
Interestingly the first and last chapter were Chinese, Genghis Khan and Deng.
All others were European (Rockefeller of ancestry)
Banking, colonial exploration, democratic European unification, computer expansion, instant international communications, etc
July 2, 2017
Great choices of thinkers who were doers
I learned a lot even in the communications and technology fields I have already read a lot about. The author writes well about the great ark of history.
I learned a lot even in the communications and technology fields I have already read a lot about. The author writes well about the great ark of history.
July 17, 2018
As we know, man is a social animal. He lives and works in a society. The size of the society in which one person operates varies widely with its civilizational level. The primitive, forest-dwelling people works on the level of tribes. All activities such as food-gathering, supporting others, finding partners and doing simple trade happen inside the limits set by the tribal elders. More civilized people move about on the level of the village which is nothing but the next higher abstraction than the tribe in the civilizational ladder. We can still go higher to the city, country or even the whole world which is called Globalization. In this new paradigm, the entire world is miniaturized to a small village and reactions to economic activity on one side of the planet are swift and far-reaching even on its antipodes. However, this is not something new brought about by computers, mobile phones and the Internet. It started 60,000 years ago, when about 150,000 people walked out of Africa in search of food and security – the moment when man stepped out of his evolutionary home to colonize the whole planet. In that sense, the story of Globalization is nothing less than the story of human history. This book describes the lives of ten pioneering persons whose mission in life turned out to be for the growth of Globalization. Jeffrey E Garten is Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, where he teaches a variety of courses on global economy. He is the author of five books on the global political economy and numerous articles in newspapers.
Garten puts down a few criteria to select the pioneers of Globalization. First of all, they had to be transformational leaders or the inaugurators of various eras of world history, such as the Age of Empire, the Age of Exploration, the Age of Colonization, the Age of Global Finance, the Age of Global Communications, the Age of Energy and Industrialization, the Age of Global Philanthropy, the Age of Supranationalism, the Age of Free Markets, the Age of High Technology and the Age of a Resurgent China. The author’s preference is for doers rather than thinkers and so Karl Marx and Adam Smith are left out. Also, the contributions shall be positive and hence Hitlers and Osama bin Ladens are eliminated. Accordingly, the lives and work of nine men and a woman is described in detail in these pages, namely, Genghis Khan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Robert Clive, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Cyrus Field, John D. Rockefeller, Jean Monnet, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove and Deng Xiaoping. Intellectuals may at once go up in arms against some of the names such as Clive, Rothschild, Rockefeller, or Thatcher, who are considered to be the focal points of capitalist advance to a great part of the world and whose careers were essential to the spread of capitalist philosophy itself. This is acknowledged by Garten to presume Globalization as all about physical, commercial and cultural connections while at the same time bringing about dislocation and destruction in the short term. Anybody can see that the forces of Globalization usher in peace, modernization and prosperity in the long term. Besides, they did not have grand strategies in mind, and they did not spend much time envisioning the major transformations for which they’d be responsible. Their achievements were the result of taking one step at a time, dealing with one challenge at a time.
For some reason, the author had left out Alexander the Great from the compilation even though the Macedonian prince struts into history by unifying Europe and Asia under the roof of a composite state and culture. There is no explanation why Alexander is not there, and Garten begins with Genghis Khan instead. Modern society might wonder what a Mongolian warlord in the Middle Ages had done so great to promote Globalization, but the incremental changes wrought by Khan was in fact more fundamental and long-lasting than the policies of Globalization’s modern day watchdogs such as WTO or the IMF. Genghis Khan integrated much of Asia and helped Chinese innovations and technology spread to all habitable parts of the known world. Printing press, gunpowder and the compass are said to be the three key inventions that changed the course of history and all of them were originated in China and disseminated during the Mongol era. Key concepts in political administration such as the principle of state over church and state capitalism also spread. The Khans were pagans worshipping the Eternal Blue Sky and numerous petty gods. Their inherent tolerance on religious affairs paved the way for the idea of secular national states in Renaissance Europe.
A great fillip to Globalization was made when Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. But it was not just a case of an adventurer one day setting sail towards the setting sun in the Atlantic. Almost a century of exploration preceded that journey. Prince Henry of Portugal, often adorned with the epithet ‘Navigator’, directly influenced Columbus’ voyage in a way. He conquered Ceuta on the Moroccan coast in 1415. His aim was to find treasure, converts to Christianity and trade. However, the traders of Ceuta fled from his domineering rule. Henry was thus burdened with the need of exploring the unknown West African coastline to find a maritime trade route to India and Central Asia. With the disintegration of the Mongol empire, overland routes had become inaccessible due to brigands and warring states. The naval explorations commanded by Henry soon discovered previously unknown islands on the Atlantic like Azores, Madeira, and Porto Sauto. Though he was unable to pick up trade with Asia, he stumbled upon another commodity which was once so appealing to medieval economies, but which fills us with disgust now – African slaves. Henry lifted slaves directly from Africa instead of relying on Muslim intermediaries. On 8 August 1444, the first cargo of 235 Africans were delivered to the Portuguese port of Lagos and this date is since identified as the day modern slavery began. Henry’s exploits are inhuman by modern standards, but it set in motion a series of explorations of the unknown lands that later morphed into discovery. In a sense, the same spirit pervades efforts of exploration in outer space now.
The remaining eight refer to comparatively modern leaders in their respective areas of work. The achievements made by Rothschild, Field and Rockefeller open a window to nineteenth century Europe and America. Rothschild’s banking business was so successful in that era, but the author doesn’t mention how its demise came about. Thatcher dismantled socialist props on the British economy which was somewhat replicated by Deng Xiaoping in China a few years later. Each of the chapters can be read with great interest and readers get absorbed into the easy flow of the narrative. Garten contemplates on the space for future leaders in Globalization’s march forward. He presciently remarks that Globalization is likely to be in for some bad time, judging by the deceleration in cross-border trade during the last decade. His hunch – or shall we say, prophecy – came true when Donald Trump became US President. Trump’s tirade against Globalization and the barriers he is erecting on the path of free trade is jeopardizing the spirit of internationalism. Anyway, the author finds fault with the trade policies of China too, who exploit what is best for them in full while trying to offload the debilitating ones to the Western world.
This book is eminently readable and highly recommended.
Garten puts down a few criteria to select the pioneers of Globalization. First of all, they had to be transformational leaders or the inaugurators of various eras of world history, such as the Age of Empire, the Age of Exploration, the Age of Colonization, the Age of Global Finance, the Age of Global Communications, the Age of Energy and Industrialization, the Age of Global Philanthropy, the Age of Supranationalism, the Age of Free Markets, the Age of High Technology and the Age of a Resurgent China. The author’s preference is for doers rather than thinkers and so Karl Marx and Adam Smith are left out. Also, the contributions shall be positive and hence Hitlers and Osama bin Ladens are eliminated. Accordingly, the lives and work of nine men and a woman is described in detail in these pages, namely, Genghis Khan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Robert Clive, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Cyrus Field, John D. Rockefeller, Jean Monnet, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove and Deng Xiaoping. Intellectuals may at once go up in arms against some of the names such as Clive, Rothschild, Rockefeller, or Thatcher, who are considered to be the focal points of capitalist advance to a great part of the world and whose careers were essential to the spread of capitalist philosophy itself. This is acknowledged by Garten to presume Globalization as all about physical, commercial and cultural connections while at the same time bringing about dislocation and destruction in the short term. Anybody can see that the forces of Globalization usher in peace, modernization and prosperity in the long term. Besides, they did not have grand strategies in mind, and they did not spend much time envisioning the major transformations for which they’d be responsible. Their achievements were the result of taking one step at a time, dealing with one challenge at a time.
For some reason, the author had left out Alexander the Great from the compilation even though the Macedonian prince struts into history by unifying Europe and Asia under the roof of a composite state and culture. There is no explanation why Alexander is not there, and Garten begins with Genghis Khan instead. Modern society might wonder what a Mongolian warlord in the Middle Ages had done so great to promote Globalization, but the incremental changes wrought by Khan was in fact more fundamental and long-lasting than the policies of Globalization’s modern day watchdogs such as WTO or the IMF. Genghis Khan integrated much of Asia and helped Chinese innovations and technology spread to all habitable parts of the known world. Printing press, gunpowder and the compass are said to be the three key inventions that changed the course of history and all of them were originated in China and disseminated during the Mongol era. Key concepts in political administration such as the principle of state over church and state capitalism also spread. The Khans were pagans worshipping the Eternal Blue Sky and numerous petty gods. Their inherent tolerance on religious affairs paved the way for the idea of secular national states in Renaissance Europe.
A great fillip to Globalization was made when Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. But it was not just a case of an adventurer one day setting sail towards the setting sun in the Atlantic. Almost a century of exploration preceded that journey. Prince Henry of Portugal, often adorned with the epithet ‘Navigator’, directly influenced Columbus’ voyage in a way. He conquered Ceuta on the Moroccan coast in 1415. His aim was to find treasure, converts to Christianity and trade. However, the traders of Ceuta fled from his domineering rule. Henry was thus burdened with the need of exploring the unknown West African coastline to find a maritime trade route to India and Central Asia. With the disintegration of the Mongol empire, overland routes had become inaccessible due to brigands and warring states. The naval explorations commanded by Henry soon discovered previously unknown islands on the Atlantic like Azores, Madeira, and Porto Sauto. Though he was unable to pick up trade with Asia, he stumbled upon another commodity which was once so appealing to medieval economies, but which fills us with disgust now – African slaves. Henry lifted slaves directly from Africa instead of relying on Muslim intermediaries. On 8 August 1444, the first cargo of 235 Africans were delivered to the Portuguese port of Lagos and this date is since identified as the day modern slavery began. Henry’s exploits are inhuman by modern standards, but it set in motion a series of explorations of the unknown lands that later morphed into discovery. In a sense, the same spirit pervades efforts of exploration in outer space now.
The remaining eight refer to comparatively modern leaders in their respective areas of work. The achievements made by Rothschild, Field and Rockefeller open a window to nineteenth century Europe and America. Rothschild’s banking business was so successful in that era, but the author doesn’t mention how its demise came about. Thatcher dismantled socialist props on the British economy which was somewhat replicated by Deng Xiaoping in China a few years later. Each of the chapters can be read with great interest and readers get absorbed into the easy flow of the narrative. Garten contemplates on the space for future leaders in Globalization’s march forward. He presciently remarks that Globalization is likely to be in for some bad time, judging by the deceleration in cross-border trade during the last decade. His hunch – or shall we say, prophecy – came true when Donald Trump became US President. Trump’s tirade against Globalization and the barriers he is erecting on the path of free trade is jeopardizing the spirit of internationalism. Anyway, the author finds fault with the trade policies of China too, who exploit what is best for them in full while trying to offload the debilitating ones to the Western world.
This book is eminently readable and highly recommended.
September 16, 2016
There are certainly questions around what other names could have made the list but I was still content. I couldn’t have agreed more with Professor’s Garten definition of transformational leaders - men who were “doers” and not just thinkers.
Spanning the 12th to 20th century he highlighted names from Genghis Khan to Cyrus Field to Andy Grove. I was glad he didn’t feed us just single stories of these men and women, but also included their darker accounts – in totality however, there’s no denying their contributions to globalization.
My takeaway quote was from Winston Churchill: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you can see."
All of the men and woman on the list completed projects so grand that they changed the human understanding of what is possible. However, Prof Garten still reminded us of the complexity of the world and how serendipity played a big role. Most of the men did not have grand strategies in mind, they did not spend much time envisioning the major transformations for which they would be responsible – they were simply accidental globalists.
I recommend this book to aspiring leaders, startup founders and history buffs.
Spanning the 12th to 20th century he highlighted names from Genghis Khan to Cyrus Field to Andy Grove. I was glad he didn’t feed us just single stories of these men and women, but also included their darker accounts – in totality however, there’s no denying their contributions to globalization.
My takeaway quote was from Winston Churchill: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you can see."
All of the men and woman on the list completed projects so grand that they changed the human understanding of what is possible. However, Prof Garten still reminded us of the complexity of the world and how serendipity played a big role. Most of the men did not have grand strategies in mind, they did not spend much time envisioning the major transformations for which they would be responsible – they were simply accidental globalists.
I recommend this book to aspiring leaders, startup founders and history buffs.
May 7, 2018
Lịch sử quá trình toàn cầu hóa theo một góc nhìn mới lạ: thông qua cuộc đời của 10 nhân vật có tác động sâu sắc nhất đến quá trình toàn cầu hóa trong lịch sử nhân loại. Theo tiêu chí của tác giả, những người tiên phong, mở đường này bao gồm:
- Thành Cát Tư Hãn: thống nhất lục địa Á-Âu, thiết lập đế chế Mông Cổ, củng cố, cai quản và phát triển giao thương trên con đường tơ lụa.
- Hoàng tử Henry của Bồ Đào Nha - nhà khoa học hàng hải: người thiết lập hình mẫu nghiên cứu, lưu trữ, hệ thống hóa việc thám hiểm hàng hải giúp châu Âu khai mở quá trình thuộc địa hóa các lục địa Á, Phi, Mỹ. Sau ông, các hậu duệ thám hiểm của Bồ Đào Nha (Bartolomeu Dias tới ra mũi Hải Vọng, Vasco de Gama tới được Ấn Độ), Bồ Đào Nha (Christopher Columbus tới được châu Mỹ, Ferdinand Magellan đi vòng quanh thế giới) đã mở ra kỷ nghiên thống trị của các đế chế châu Âu.
- Robert Clive: con người trưởng thành trong công ty Đông Ấn Anh từ một thư lại trở thành một người lính, một vị tướng, một chính trị gia và cuối cùng trở thành một người giàu có bậc nhất Đế Chế toàn cầu của Anh. Ông có công đưa công ty trở thành một quyền lực lãnh thổ, truyền bá tư tưởng về dân chủ, pháp quyền, đa nguyên chính trị, giáo dục hiện đại, thị trường tự do, ... các tư tưởng cốt lõi của đế chế Anh ra toàn bộ thuộc địa của nó (43 thuộc địa rải khắp 5 châu lục vào thời kì đỉnh cao của đế chế Anh). Có thể nói nếu đóng góp của Thành Cát Tư Hãn và Hoàng tử Henry là về mặt địa lý thì Robert Clive đóng góp vô cùng quan trọng về việc gieo cấy các ý tưởng quan trọng nhất thúc đẩy quá trình toàn cầu hóa sau này.
- Mayer Amschel Rothschild: một đứa trẻ Do Thái mồ côi cha mẹ đã vươn lên, sử dụng sự tháo vát, thông minh và đáng tin cậy của mình để xây dựng đế chế tài chính toàn cầu của gia đình Rothschild. Nhờ việc phát triển hệ thống tài chính toàn cầu, tiền bạc dư thừa được chuyển tới những nơi cần thiết một cách nhanh chóng và hiệu quả trên phạm vi toàn thế giới.
- Cyrus Field: nhà tài phiệt Mỹ với tâm huyết vượt mọi khó khăn về kỹ thuật, tài chính, pháp lý để nối cáp điện tín vượt Đại Tây Dương, giúp liên lạc giữa châu Âu tới châu Mỹ tăng tốc từ vài tuần xuống còn vài phút; từ đó làm cơ sở cho mạng lưới internet, truyền hình, thoại toàn cầu ngày nay. Mạng lưới liên lạc siêu tốc toàn cầu mà Cyrus Field khởi xướng giúp quá trình toàn cầu hóa xả tốc: giờ đây liên lạc giữa các cá nhân, tổ chức, chính phủ trở nên hiệu quả hơn bao giờ hết, xóa nhòa mọi khoảng cách địa lý. Tuyến cáp vượt Đại Tây Dương của Field còn tạo cảm hứng cho hàng loạt các công ty sau đó xây dựng các tuyến cáp nối liền tất cả các quốc gia trên thế giới, từ đó định hình lại thương mại, chính trị và ngoại giao quốc tế. Truyền thông là nguồn lực hùng mạnh nhất làm gia tốc toàn cầu hóa, thành tựu của Field đã tiếp nối xuất sắc những gì mà Thành Cát Tư Hãn, Hoàng tử Henry, gia tộc Rothschild đã khởi đầu.
- John D. Rockerfeller: vua dầu lửa Mỹ, người giàu nhất hành tinh trong lịch sử (tài sản lúc ông chết quy ra giá trị thời điểm hiện tại gấp 4 lần Bill Gates) và là cha đẻ của các hoạt động bác ái toàn cầu, người đỡ đầu vĩ đại nhất cho giáo dục sau đại học, nghiên cứu khoa học và y tế công. Standard Oil của ông đã định hình DNA cho ngành công nghiệp dầu mỏ toàn cầu và các hậu bối của nó (Exon Mobil, Chevron) là hiện thân cho sức ảnh hưởng của các công ty đa quốc gia lên toàn cầu. Các công ty này đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc định hình toàn cầu hóa là gì, vận hành ra sao và ai sẽ là những người được hưởng lợi trong quá trình đó.
- Jean Monnet: nhà ngoại giao tài ba giúp hồi sinh châu Âu sau hai cuộc thế Chiến. Nỗ lực của ông giúp hình thành các thế lực siêu quốc gia, các tổ chức giúp thống nhất châu lục, thúc đẩy sự phát triển của kinh tế, chính trị châu Âu.
- Margaret Thatcher: Bà Đầm Thép của Anh tiếp nguồn sinh lực cho toàn cầu hóa bằng cách cổ vũ các phương thức thu hẹp nhà nước thông qua gỡ bỏ các hàng rào thuế quan, giảm điều tiết và sở hữu chính phủ. Tất cả các việc này giúp giao dịch thương mại trong nước và giữa các nước với nhau trở nên dễ dàng hơn.
- Andrew Grove: COO, CEO, chủ tịch người Do Thái của Intel, hãng công nghệ có đóng góp to lớn trong quá trình sản xuất vi mạch, bộ vi xử lý tạo nên những tiền đề tối quan trọng cho thời đại Internet và cuộc cách mạng công nghiệp 4.0 ngày nay. Đóng góp của ông cho toàn cầu hóa là làm lan tóa cả công nghệ lẫn quy trình, qua đó transitor và vi xử lý có thể sản xuất thương mại được và phân phối đến mọi ngóc ngách của thế giới. Trong toàn bộ tiến trình của toàn cầu hóa, thông tin dần được truyền đi xa hơn, nhanh hơn, hiệu quả hơn: từ đôi chân và ngựa dưới thời Thành Cát Tư Hãn tới bằng thuyền dưới thời hoàn tử Henry tới bằng điện tín bổ Cyrus Field và tới bằng xe hơi, tàu hỏa, máy bay, điện thoại, vô tuyến và internet như ngày nay.
- và Đặng Tiểu Bình: lãnh đạo thực dụng cải cách Trung Quốc mở cửa, khuyến khích giao lưu với thế giới trong việc phát triển thương mại, khoa học, kỹ thuật, giáo dục. Nhờ sự lãnh đạo khéo léo và tài tình của ông, đất nước chiếm 25% dân số Thế Giới trở thành lực lượng kinh tế phát triển hùng mạnh nhất, khiến cán cân kinh tế dần dịch chuyển sang phía Đông.
Có rất nhiều cuốn sách về chủ đề toàn cầu hóa và thương mại quốc tế nhưng đây là có lẽ là cuốn duy nhất tiếp cận theo phương pháp này. Nhìn nhận lịch sử qua một góc nhìn khác, một lăng kính khác đem lại nhiều cảm hứng mới mẻ. Như Winston Churchill từng phát biểu "càng nhìn xa về phía sau thì ta càng thấy xa về phía trước", tác giả còn có dụng ý cung cấp thêm góc nhìn mới về hình mẫu và diễn tiến của lịch sử, triển vọng và hy vọng vào tương lai. Có thể nói đây là một cuốn sách lịch sử, tiểu sử, thương mại, tiểu thuyết vô cùng hấp dẫn, không thể bỏ qua ý : )
- Thành Cát Tư Hãn: thống nhất lục địa Á-Âu, thiết lập đế chế Mông Cổ, củng cố, cai quản và phát triển giao thương trên con đường tơ lụa.
- Hoàng tử Henry của Bồ Đào Nha - nhà khoa học hàng hải: người thiết lập hình mẫu nghiên cứu, lưu trữ, hệ thống hóa việc thám hiểm hàng hải giúp châu Âu khai mở quá trình thuộc địa hóa các lục địa Á, Phi, Mỹ. Sau ông, các hậu duệ thám hiểm của Bồ Đào Nha (Bartolomeu Dias tới ra mũi Hải Vọng, Vasco de Gama tới được Ấn Độ), Bồ Đào Nha (Christopher Columbus tới được châu Mỹ, Ferdinand Magellan đi vòng quanh thế giới) đã mở ra kỷ nghiên thống trị của các đế chế châu Âu.
- Robert Clive: con người trưởng thành trong công ty Đông Ấn Anh từ một thư lại trở thành một người lính, một vị tướng, một chính trị gia và cuối cùng trở thành một người giàu có bậc nhất Đế Chế toàn cầu của Anh. Ông có công đưa công ty trở thành một quyền lực lãnh thổ, truyền bá tư tưởng về dân chủ, pháp quyền, đa nguyên chính trị, giáo dục hiện đại, thị trường tự do, ... các tư tưởng cốt lõi của đế chế Anh ra toàn bộ thuộc địa của nó (43 thuộc địa rải khắp 5 châu lục vào thời kì đỉnh cao của đế chế Anh). Có thể nói nếu đóng góp của Thành Cát Tư Hãn và Hoàng tử Henry là về mặt địa lý thì Robert Clive đóng góp vô cùng quan trọng về việc gieo cấy các ý tưởng quan trọng nhất thúc đẩy quá trình toàn cầu hóa sau này.
- Mayer Amschel Rothschild: một đứa trẻ Do Thái mồ côi cha mẹ đã vươn lên, sử dụng sự tháo vát, thông minh và đáng tin cậy của mình để xây dựng đế chế tài chính toàn cầu của gia đình Rothschild. Nhờ việc phát triển hệ thống tài chính toàn cầu, tiền bạc dư thừa được chuyển tới những nơi cần thiết một cách nhanh chóng và hiệu quả trên phạm vi toàn thế giới.
- Cyrus Field: nhà tài phiệt Mỹ với tâm huyết vượt mọi khó khăn về kỹ thuật, tài chính, pháp lý để nối cáp điện tín vượt Đại Tây Dương, giúp liên lạc giữa châu Âu tới châu Mỹ tăng tốc từ vài tuần xuống còn vài phút; từ đó làm cơ sở cho mạng lưới internet, truyền hình, thoại toàn cầu ngày nay. Mạng lưới liên lạc siêu tốc toàn cầu mà Cyrus Field khởi xướng giúp quá trình toàn cầu hóa xả tốc: giờ đây liên lạc giữa các cá nhân, tổ chức, chính phủ trở nên hiệu quả hơn bao giờ hết, xóa nhòa mọi khoảng cách địa lý. Tuyến cáp vượt Đại Tây Dương của Field còn tạo cảm hứng cho hàng loạt các công ty sau đó xây dựng các tuyến cáp nối liền tất cả các quốc gia trên thế giới, từ đó định hình lại thương mại, chính trị và ngoại giao quốc tế. Truyền thông là nguồn lực hùng mạnh nhất làm gia tốc toàn cầu hóa, thành tựu của Field đã tiếp nối xuất sắc những gì mà Thành Cát Tư Hãn, Hoàng tử Henry, gia tộc Rothschild đã khởi đầu.
- John D. Rockerfeller: vua dầu lửa Mỹ, người giàu nhất hành tinh trong lịch sử (tài sản lúc ông chết quy ra giá trị thời điểm hiện tại gấp 4 lần Bill Gates) và là cha đẻ của các hoạt động bác ái toàn cầu, người đỡ đầu vĩ đại nhất cho giáo dục sau đại học, nghiên cứu khoa học và y tế công. Standard Oil của ông đã định hình DNA cho ngành công nghiệp dầu mỏ toàn cầu và các hậu bối của nó (Exon Mobil, Chevron) là hiện thân cho sức ảnh hưởng của các công ty đa quốc gia lên toàn cầu. Các công ty này đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc định hình toàn cầu hóa là gì, vận hành ra sao và ai sẽ là những người được hưởng lợi trong quá trình đó.
- Jean Monnet: nhà ngoại giao tài ba giúp hồi sinh châu Âu sau hai cuộc thế Chiến. Nỗ lực của ông giúp hình thành các thế lực siêu quốc gia, các tổ chức giúp thống nhất châu lục, thúc đẩy sự phát triển của kinh tế, chính trị châu Âu.
- Margaret Thatcher: Bà Đầm Thép của Anh tiếp nguồn sinh lực cho toàn cầu hóa bằng cách cổ vũ các phương thức thu hẹp nhà nước thông qua gỡ bỏ các hàng rào thuế quan, giảm điều tiết và sở hữu chính phủ. Tất cả các việc này giúp giao dịch thương mại trong nước và giữa các nước với nhau trở nên dễ dàng hơn.
- Andrew Grove: COO, CEO, chủ tịch người Do Thái của Intel, hãng công nghệ có đóng góp to lớn trong quá trình sản xuất vi mạch, bộ vi xử lý tạo nên những tiền đề tối quan trọng cho thời đại Internet và cuộc cách mạng công nghiệp 4.0 ngày nay. Đóng góp của ông cho toàn cầu hóa là làm lan tóa cả công nghệ lẫn quy trình, qua đó transitor và vi xử lý có thể sản xuất thương mại được và phân phối đến mọi ngóc ngách của thế giới. Trong toàn bộ tiến trình của toàn cầu hóa, thông tin dần được truyền đi xa hơn, nhanh hơn, hiệu quả hơn: từ đôi chân và ngựa dưới thời Thành Cát Tư Hãn tới bằng thuyền dưới thời hoàn tử Henry tới bằng điện tín bổ Cyrus Field và tới bằng xe hơi, tàu hỏa, máy bay, điện thoại, vô tuyến và internet như ngày nay.
- và Đặng Tiểu Bình: lãnh đạo thực dụng cải cách Trung Quốc mở cửa, khuyến khích giao lưu với thế giới trong việc phát triển thương mại, khoa học, kỹ thuật, giáo dục. Nhờ sự lãnh đạo khéo léo và tài tình của ông, đất nước chiếm 25% dân số Thế Giới trở thành lực lượng kinh tế phát triển hùng mạnh nhất, khiến cán cân kinh tế dần dịch chuyển sang phía Đông.
Có rất nhiều cuốn sách về chủ đề toàn cầu hóa và thương mại quốc tế nhưng đây là có lẽ là cuốn duy nhất tiếp cận theo phương pháp này. Nhìn nhận lịch sử qua một góc nhìn khác, một lăng kính khác đem lại nhiều cảm hứng mới mẻ. Như Winston Churchill từng phát biểu "càng nhìn xa về phía sau thì ta càng thấy xa về phía trước", tác giả còn có dụng ý cung cấp thêm góc nhìn mới về hình mẫu và diễn tiến của lịch sử, triển vọng và hy vọng vào tương lai. Có thể nói đây là một cuốn sách lịch sử, tiểu sử, thương mại, tiểu thuyết vô cùng hấp dẫn, không thể bỏ qua ý : )
July 1, 2020
Scholars argue about when globalization first took firm hold in the world’s economy. But most agree that the entry of the Old World into the affairs of the New was the pivotal event. Before then, before the voyages of Christopher Columbus and what came to be called the Columbian Exchange, what had come before was merely prelude. Not so Jeffrey Garten. In his ambitious story of globalization, From Silk to Silicon, Garten identifies the expansion of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century as the beginning. He makes an impressive case, but it’s not fully convincing.
Garten tells the history of globalization through ten engaging biographical sketches. He includes some of the best-known actors in world history (Genghis Khan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Deng Xiaoping) and others whose names are much less familiar to contemporary readers (Robert Clive, Cyrus Field, Jean Monnet) as well as a handful whose names may be well known today but whose contributions to the history of globalization might be a mystery (Mayer Amschel Rothschild, John D. Rockefeller, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove). Garten’s choices are a decidedly mixed bag, some of whom raise as many questions as they answer.
Ten mini-biographies, but are all well chosen?
Unquestionably, given the facts Garten reports about Genghis Khan’s life, the man was one of the most consequential figures in world history. And he certainly knit together the economies of much of Asia and Eastern Europe in a way that lasted for two centuries. But that represented internationalization, not globalization. True globalization—a global phenomenon—began only when the Spanish and Portuguese connected the economies of the Old World with the New.
Some of Garten’s other choices are obvious:
** Prince Henry the Navigator, far more than Columbus, was instrumental in driving the European push across the ocean toward the rest of the world.
** Robert Clive was the central figure in Britain’s gaining dominance over other European powers in the Indian Ocean.
** Mayer Amschel Rothschild undoubtedly was pivotal in driving the development of banking as a global industry.
** John D. Rockefeller built the oil business into the world’s largest industry—and, as Garten emphasizes, also invented global philanthropy.
** Jean Monnet’s life work led to the creation of the European Union and the European Common Market.
** Andrew Grove may or may not be identified by later historians as the central figure in driving the monumental changes wrought by Silicon Valley. Garten does, though, and Grove is arguably a good choice for having built the semiconductor industry that is central to the high-tech revolution now dominating our lives.
** Deng Xiaoping brought the world’s largest nation, and one of the poorest, into the global economy.
Two dubious choices for the story of globalization
However, Garten also includes two individuals whose connection to the growth of globalization seems mysterious:
** Without question, Cyrus Field was instrumental in launching the effort that led to the use of undersea cables to communicate across the Atlantic. But in the end he failed. It was others who built that industry.
** No doubt, Margaret Thatcher was primarily responsible for the reversal of the trend toward state intervention in the British economy. And in the process she influenced many other world leaders, including Ronald Reagan. But it could just as easily be argued that the approach Thatcher took—what later came to be called neoliberal—has damaged far more lives than it helped and is responsible for the large and growing gap between rich and poor. In no way does Thatcher deserve to be celebrated as a champion of globalization.
Despite its flaws, including a few historical errors, From Silk to Silicon is well worth reading for Garten’s superb short biographies of the ten important people featured in its pages.
About the author
Like so many other elite Ivy League academics, Jeffrey E. Garten (1946-) has cycled seamlessly back and forth among high-level government posts, the private sector, and academia. He served in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Garten is the Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Management, where he served as Dean from 1996 to 2005. His effort to tell the story of globalization is his sixth book.
Garten tells the history of globalization through ten engaging biographical sketches. He includes some of the best-known actors in world history (Genghis Khan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Deng Xiaoping) and others whose names are much less familiar to contemporary readers (Robert Clive, Cyrus Field, Jean Monnet) as well as a handful whose names may be well known today but whose contributions to the history of globalization might be a mystery (Mayer Amschel Rothschild, John D. Rockefeller, Margaret Thatcher, Andrew Grove). Garten’s choices are a decidedly mixed bag, some of whom raise as many questions as they answer.
Ten mini-biographies, but are all well chosen?
Unquestionably, given the facts Garten reports about Genghis Khan’s life, the man was one of the most consequential figures in world history. And he certainly knit together the economies of much of Asia and Eastern Europe in a way that lasted for two centuries. But that represented internationalization, not globalization. True globalization—a global phenomenon—began only when the Spanish and Portuguese connected the economies of the Old World with the New.
Some of Garten’s other choices are obvious:
** Prince Henry the Navigator, far more than Columbus, was instrumental in driving the European push across the ocean toward the rest of the world.
** Robert Clive was the central figure in Britain’s gaining dominance over other European powers in the Indian Ocean.
** Mayer Amschel Rothschild undoubtedly was pivotal in driving the development of banking as a global industry.
** John D. Rockefeller built the oil business into the world’s largest industry—and, as Garten emphasizes, also invented global philanthropy.
** Jean Monnet’s life work led to the creation of the European Union and the European Common Market.
** Andrew Grove may or may not be identified by later historians as the central figure in driving the monumental changes wrought by Silicon Valley. Garten does, though, and Grove is arguably a good choice for having built the semiconductor industry that is central to the high-tech revolution now dominating our lives.
** Deng Xiaoping brought the world’s largest nation, and one of the poorest, into the global economy.
Two dubious choices for the story of globalization
However, Garten also includes two individuals whose connection to the growth of globalization seems mysterious:
** Without question, Cyrus Field was instrumental in launching the effort that led to the use of undersea cables to communicate across the Atlantic. But in the end he failed. It was others who built that industry.
** No doubt, Margaret Thatcher was primarily responsible for the reversal of the trend toward state intervention in the British economy. And in the process she influenced many other world leaders, including Ronald Reagan. But it could just as easily be argued that the approach Thatcher took—what later came to be called neoliberal—has damaged far more lives than it helped and is responsible for the large and growing gap between rich and poor. In no way does Thatcher deserve to be celebrated as a champion of globalization.
Despite its flaws, including a few historical errors, From Silk to Silicon is well worth reading for Garten’s superb short biographies of the ten important people featured in its pages.
About the author
Like so many other elite Ivy League academics, Jeffrey E. Garten (1946-) has cycled seamlessly back and forth among high-level government posts, the private sector, and academia. He served in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Garten is the Dean Emeritus of the Yale School of Management, where he served as Dean from 1996 to 2005. His effort to tell the story of globalization is his sixth book.
September 11, 2022
This book contains ten short biographies of people who changed the face of the world. Some were people I had read about — John D. Rockefeller, Andy Grove, Margaret Thatcher — others I knew little about or nothing of — Cyrus Field, Prince Henry, Robert Clive.
Two chapters most stood out to me. I found it fascinating to read about Jean Monnet, the founder of the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union. He had a vision as a young man that Europe had to be united and dedicated his life to it singularly. Uniquely, he chose not to become a politician himself, but to influence the leading politicians around him. After helping the U.K. and France collectively buy arms from the United States during the Second World War, he developed the idea for France, Germany, and four other European nations to govern coal and steel policies under the European Coal and Steel Community, which was implemented in 1950.
Another terrific story is that of Cyrus Field, who first connected Europe and the United States by telegraph cable in 1858. After selling his stationary business at the age of thirty-four, he pitched his wealthy Manhattan neighbors on forming a venture to connect America and Britain by cable. Three times the cable snapped halfway through the Atlantic, and three times he started again. (After the first failure, he wrote to his investors and team, "Do not think I am discouraged, or am in low spirits, for I am not.") Once completed, the speed of communicating across the channel dropped from a few weeks to a few minutes, roughly 10,000x faster — truly transformational.
While I did not necessarily associate with each of the characters in the books — who wants to be associated by a murderer like Genghis Khan — it was interesting to learn about their lives and histories. As the author puts it, "none of my characters are saints, and several in particular had dark sides and created considerable suffering in their wake."
The ten people covered in the book are:
1. Genghis Khan, Mongol leader who built the largest empire in human history
2. Prince Henry, Portuguese Prince who financed early sailing expeditions
3. Robert Clive, leader of the British East India Company
4. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild bank
5. Cyrus Field, who laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable
6. John Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and the Rockefeller Foundation
7. Jean Monnet, the man who built the European Union
8. Margaret Thatcher, leader of the U.K.
9. Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, who led the shift to microprocessors
10. Deng Xiaoping, supreme leader of China after Mao Zedong, opening China to the world again
Two chapters most stood out to me. I found it fascinating to read about Jean Monnet, the founder of the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union. He had a vision as a young man that Europe had to be united and dedicated his life to it singularly. Uniquely, he chose not to become a politician himself, but to influence the leading politicians around him. After helping the U.K. and France collectively buy arms from the United States during the Second World War, he developed the idea for France, Germany, and four other European nations to govern coal and steel policies under the European Coal and Steel Community, which was implemented in 1950.
Another terrific story is that of Cyrus Field, who first connected Europe and the United States by telegraph cable in 1858. After selling his stationary business at the age of thirty-four, he pitched his wealthy Manhattan neighbors on forming a venture to connect America and Britain by cable. Three times the cable snapped halfway through the Atlantic, and three times he started again. (After the first failure, he wrote to his investors and team, "Do not think I am discouraged, or am in low spirits, for I am not.") Once completed, the speed of communicating across the channel dropped from a few weeks to a few minutes, roughly 10,000x faster — truly transformational.
While I did not necessarily associate with each of the characters in the books — who wants to be associated by a murderer like Genghis Khan — it was interesting to learn about their lives and histories. As the author puts it, "none of my characters are saints, and several in particular had dark sides and created considerable suffering in their wake."
The ten people covered in the book are:
1. Genghis Khan, Mongol leader who built the largest empire in human history
2. Prince Henry, Portuguese Prince who financed early sailing expeditions
3. Robert Clive, leader of the British East India Company
4. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild bank
5. Cyrus Field, who laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable
6. John Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil and the Rockefeller Foundation
7. Jean Monnet, the man who built the European Union
8. Margaret Thatcher, leader of the U.K.
9. Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, who led the shift to microprocessors
10. Deng Xiaoping, supreme leader of China after Mao Zedong, opening China to the world again
May 20, 2018
Bagaimana Kisah Globalisasi
Begitu kira-kira premis yang disajikan oleh Jeffrey Garten.
Beliau bukan sekadar ingin menabalkan diri menjadi seorang sejarawan dengan tebal yang tak kira-kira. Sebagai dosen ekonomi. Secara terperinci dan taktis, penulis menyajikan kisah hidup dan daya usaha para pelaku sejarah. Iya karena apa yang dilakukan menciptakan sebuah perubahan dan dampak yang tidak kecil. Mulai dari Genghis Kan, Andy Groove dari Intel, hingga terakhir Deng Xiaoping penaruh tonggak lahirnya China modern.
Tidak kurang 2 tahun buku ini akhirnya saya selesaikan. Materi bukunya memang agak bikin keder. Tapi begitu informatif. Nggak kayak buku biografi biasa. Narasinya juga luar biasa hidup. Nggak kayak baca buku umum gitu. Di tiap akhir bab diberikan penjelasan. Warisan (legacy) apa aja yang dibuat oleh tokoh tersebut. Menarik. Tapi itu bacanya loncat-loncat. Dan hari ini baru sempat diselesaikan dalam sekali duduk. Mumpung weekend pikirku.
Di bagian akhir sang penulis menyimpulkan sifat para tokoh dunia tersebut. salah satunya adalah: Fokus pada 1 hal besar.
Tiap generasi punya problematikanya tersendiri. 20, 30 bahkan 50 tahun kedepan. Kita tidak tahu siapa yang akan masuk di buku sejarah. Sosok pengubah sejarah setelah era 2000an. Pangeran Harry yang kemarin baru merit? Hm.. Bill Gates? Pasti. Elon Musk? Mungkin. Satu hal yang pasti setiap sosok hebat mungkin menyimpan sisi gelap yang kadang bikin kita sadar "Great men are almost always bad men." Selamat membaca. Kalau paperbacknya sudah keluar. From Silk to Silicon bisa jadi teman duduk yang menyenangkan. Dijamin deh.
Begitu kira-kira premis yang disajikan oleh Jeffrey Garten.
Beliau bukan sekadar ingin menabalkan diri menjadi seorang sejarawan dengan tebal yang tak kira-kira. Sebagai dosen ekonomi. Secara terperinci dan taktis, penulis menyajikan kisah hidup dan daya usaha para pelaku sejarah. Iya karena apa yang dilakukan menciptakan sebuah perubahan dan dampak yang tidak kecil. Mulai dari Genghis Kan, Andy Groove dari Intel, hingga terakhir Deng Xiaoping penaruh tonggak lahirnya China modern.
Tidak kurang 2 tahun buku ini akhirnya saya selesaikan. Materi bukunya memang agak bikin keder. Tapi begitu informatif. Nggak kayak buku biografi biasa. Narasinya juga luar biasa hidup. Nggak kayak baca buku umum gitu. Di tiap akhir bab diberikan penjelasan. Warisan (legacy) apa aja yang dibuat oleh tokoh tersebut. Menarik. Tapi itu bacanya loncat-loncat. Dan hari ini baru sempat diselesaikan dalam sekali duduk. Mumpung weekend pikirku.
Di bagian akhir sang penulis menyimpulkan sifat para tokoh dunia tersebut. salah satunya adalah: Fokus pada 1 hal besar.
Tiap generasi punya problematikanya tersendiri. 20, 30 bahkan 50 tahun kedepan. Kita tidak tahu siapa yang akan masuk di buku sejarah. Sosok pengubah sejarah setelah era 2000an. Pangeran Harry yang kemarin baru merit? Hm.. Bill Gates? Pasti. Elon Musk? Mungkin. Satu hal yang pasti setiap sosok hebat mungkin menyimpan sisi gelap yang kadang bikin kita sadar "Great men are almost always bad men." Selamat membaca. Kalau paperbacknya sudah keluar. From Silk to Silicon bisa jadi teman duduk yang menyenangkan. Dijamin deh.
March 19, 2018
About 30% of the book was the Author's note, bibliography, index, and other books he'd written. While I was kind of relieved I didn't need to read that 30%, it's still 30% of the book!
This was a nice overview about some various historical figures I didn't know too much about and how they changed the world. However, the inclusion of Margaret Thatcher seemed to be very weak. I felt like she had only been included because she was a woman, and was the only woman in the ten selected. While reading, I couldn't help but think, "What a monster, what a terrible person." And it continued throughout her entire section and when it ended, I couldn't find a positive thing to take away from it. It sounded like she got lucky in many cases and that the improvements in some parts of the economy were flukes.
The rest of the 10 were men. I'm not going to argue for the inclusion of more women in this book. It's the same in art history- women weren't allowed the same freedoms, weren't allowed to do the same work- so we have the issue of, "Do we include women just to include women? Are they not included because we refuse to see their contributions? Were they contributors?" It's a thorny path. Though maybe, a feminist leader could have been included in this book. There must be someone as obscure as the others that contributed to women's rights. However, instead of being focused on human rights, this book was more financially based. Not surprising considering the author's background.
Either way, I read it and can add it to my tiny non-fiction collection, haha.
This was a nice overview about some various historical figures I didn't know too much about and how they changed the world. However, the inclusion of Margaret Thatcher seemed to be very weak. I felt like she had only been included because she was a woman, and was the only woman in the ten selected. While reading, I couldn't help but think, "What a monster, what a terrible person." And it continued throughout her entire section and when it ended, I couldn't find a positive thing to take away from it. It sounded like she got lucky in many cases and that the improvements in some parts of the economy were flukes.
The rest of the 10 were men. I'm not going to argue for the inclusion of more women in this book. It's the same in art history- women weren't allowed the same freedoms, weren't allowed to do the same work- so we have the issue of, "Do we include women just to include women? Are they not included because we refuse to see their contributions? Were they contributors?" It's a thorny path. Though maybe, a feminist leader could have been included in this book. There must be someone as obscure as the others that contributed to women's rights. However, instead of being focused on human rights, this book was more financially based. Not surprising considering the author's background.
Either way, I read it and can add it to my tiny non-fiction collection, haha.
March 22, 2020
WOW ! one of the fantastic books i have read ! awe inspiring the struggles , spirited doggedness of the individuals who shaped the history of Globalisation. the Like of of the protagonists in this book Genghis Khan to Deng Xiaopeng all simply people of action for a cause they believed. The author sums it up wondering whether they were visionaries or not but these people were at the right place at the right time. It is singularly the individual drive to achieve something whether to become rich , to extract vengeance, to pursue a belief on political system or to do a momentous personal business gain , they pursued it against odds of opposition but a a time these pursuit were already taking root amongst people or as time the was ripe.
some of the quotes i loved it and my personality of this book was - Jean Monnet - A towering figure who visualised Union of Europe well ahead and when it was a collection of warring nations. Monnet's statement
Men in power are short of Ideas : they lack the time and information and they want to do good as long as they get credit for it. In crises Monnet said people don't know what to do but I do Know.
American Diplomat Dwight Morrow said "there are two kinds of people -those who want to be someone and those who want to do something".
A wonderful book to read
some of the quotes i loved it and my personality of this book was - Jean Monnet - A towering figure who visualised Union of Europe well ahead and when it was a collection of warring nations. Monnet's statement
Men in power are short of Ideas : they lack the time and information and they want to do good as long as they get credit for it. In crises Monnet said people don't know what to do but I do Know.
American Diplomat Dwight Morrow said "there are two kinds of people -those who want to be someone and those who want to do something".
A wonderful book to read
November 6, 2019
I heard about From Silk to Silicon during an [NPR?] interview with Garten, and was instantly intrigued by the book's look through history, proving that globalization is hardly a new trend. The book itself is interesting, focusing on the lives of what Garten sees as key figures who revolutionized governance, trade, communications, the economy, diplomacy, or politics. Some of them are very familiar, others less so, but details of the biographies of all of them were new to me. With few exceptions (that Monnet guy seems fine, and a couple of the others seem like rich guys who were probably nice enough to their families and friends), they're overwhelmingly terrible, cruel human beings.
I would have liked to see more of Garten's own thoughts on what ties these figures together and, more importantly, on the story and trends of a more globally connected world throughout history, outside of these select lives. He says he doesn't believe in the great men theory of history, yet that seems to be what is presented here. I would have liked to hear more perspective on the historical figures and the milieus surrounding them, even at the cost of biographical information about them.
I would have liked to see more of Garten's own thoughts on what ties these figures together and, more importantly, on the story and trends of a more globally connected world throughout history, outside of these select lives. He says he doesn't believe in the great men theory of history, yet that seems to be what is presented here. I would have liked to hear more perspective on the historical figures and the milieus surrounding them, even at the cost of biographical information about them.
August 5, 2017
By focusing on individuals to relate the story of globalization, the author has created a quite interesting and accessible work. Although the author is optimistic about globalization, he does recognize it has always had the impact of leaving many in the world dispossessed and disenfranchised. Some of the figures, such as Mayer Rothschild and Jean Monnet are more intriguing than others. However, the author concludes that they all had traits in common – most notably, they were all “hedgehogs.”
October 5, 2017
10 exceptional people who changed the world as we know it. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to see right through our current world. Right from Genghis Khan to Robert Clive and Jean Monet, these people battled through their own personal hardships in life and carved out our world for us. The book traces their personal journey along with those inflection points in their lives where they made the sea change in the world which still has remnants all around. I would highly recommend this book and I don't say it easy.
April 12, 2018
What a great book. Summarizing the story of globalization using the life of 10 people spanning centuries is no small feat and being able to do that by connecting the dots that tie them together is impressive.
What I found most interesting about these people is how they steadfastly pursued an idea and how each and everyone dared to follow a vision that not all could have seen at the beginning. Also, there is not one way of making things happen.
July 30, 2018
Not entirely boring
The book tells 10 stories of famous historical figures. Each have an element of globalism. So Garten follows through on his initial promise.
What the book lacks, however, is a sense of focus; each anecdote follows a rough distribution 90% story, plus 10% at the end exposition on how the story was about globalism. These sections don’t convincingly weave together.
The book tells 10 stories of famous historical figures. Each have an element of globalism. So Garten follows through on his initial promise.
What the book lacks, however, is a sense of focus; each anecdote follows a rough distribution 90% story, plus 10% at the end exposition on how the story was about globalism. These sections don’t convincingly weave together.
September 17, 2018
Inspiring and informative
Must of us recognize the world it's getting smaller, but when was the last time you asked how it got so small? Dr. Gartner takes his readers on a journey to discover the origins of globalization by exploring the lives of ten individuals. Each of the ten stories is fascinating and each analysis is easy to consume. It was an easy read that left me more knowledgeable and more inspired.
Must of us recognize the world it's getting smaller, but when was the last time you asked how it got so small? Dr. Gartner takes his readers on a journey to discover the origins of globalization by exploring the lives of ten individuals. Each of the ten stories is fascinating and each analysis is easy to consume. It was an easy read that left me more knowledgeable and more inspired.
April 24, 2019
Some of the lessons that we can draw from this book are still as valid as they were ever. One of the most inspiring character in the book is Jean Monnet, a French economist who (in a way) created European Union. As the world that we live in and the problems that we face are becoming more and more complex, I think we need someone like Monnet, someone who can work across countries across party lines to solve those problems.
July 22, 2020
Garten's book is simultaneously a fascinating overview of the lives and achievements of 10 immensely influential historical figures, and a salient argument for the ultimate good that globalization can bring.
I was struck by the stories of Jean Monnet and Deng Xiaoping in particular. Most popular history of the post-war period focuses on the Marshall Plan or the rise of the Soviet bloc. But Garten provides a perspective of post-war Europe that is Euro-centric, and of midcentury China that explains its seemingly shocking economic rise.
Garten's summary of each protagonist's globalist legacy helps frame their lives info terms of their longer term impact, which he then summarizes again at the end.
I really enjoyed this listen and now have a few new periods of history I want to learn more about.
I was struck by the stories of Jean Monnet and Deng Xiaoping in particular. Most popular history of the post-war period focuses on the Marshall Plan or the rise of the Soviet bloc. But Garten provides a perspective of post-war Europe that is Euro-centric, and of midcentury China that explains its seemingly shocking economic rise.
Garten's summary of each protagonist's globalist legacy helps frame their lives info terms of their longer term impact, which he then summarizes again at the end.
I really enjoyed this listen and now have a few new periods of history I want to learn more about.
January 9, 2022
Really interesting book.
At many times I thought I was just reading a conservative, Republican, Tory perspective on growth and globalization, but I think the book is much more than that. It is a really interesting perspective on major steps forward that were propelled by a handful of individuals.
I think the inclusion of the last two individuals (Margaret Thacher and Deng Xiaoping) was unnecessary and almost politicized the book.
Highly recommended.
At many times I thought I was just reading a conservative, Republican, Tory perspective on growth and globalization, but I think the book is much more than that. It is a really interesting perspective on major steps forward that were propelled by a handful of individuals.
I think the inclusion of the last two individuals (Margaret Thacher and Deng Xiaoping) was unnecessary and almost politicized the book.
Highly recommended.
May 11, 2017
Awesome insights and information. Not a moment of this book was boring.
It delves into the very fabric of what made the people, who made globalization a reality, and how they influenced big changes in the world. The writer doesn't stray too far and instead focuses his interpretation on 10 people, some of them more recent than others.
It delves into the very fabric of what made the people, who made globalization a reality, and how they influenced big changes in the world. The writer doesn't stray too far and instead focuses his interpretation on 10 people, some of them more recent than others.
June 7, 2017
I love biographies. And in particular I seem to love books which tell stories of people who have shaped a particular area. This book is the story of globalisation, and the story of 10 people who, in the opinion of the author, most shaped it. You can quibble about the choice of the ten, but each life is fascinating. Together they tell a really interesting story.
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