Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars

by Tara Zahra

A brilliant, eye-opening work of history that speaks volumes about today’s battles over international trade, immigration, public health and global inequality. Before the First World War, enthusiasm for a borderless world reached its height. International travel, migration, trade, and progressive projects on matters ranging from women’s rights to world peace reached a crescendo. Yet in the same breath, an undercurrent of reaction was growing, one that would surge ahead with the outbreak of war and its aftermath. In Against the World , a sweeping and ambitious work of history, acclaimed scholar Tara Zahra examines how nationalism, rather than internationalism, came to ensnare world politics in the early twentieth century. The air went out of the globalist balloon with the First World War as quotas were put on immigration and tariffs on trade, not only in the United States but across Europe, where war and disease led to mass societal upheaval. The “Spanish flu” heightened anxieties about porous national boundaries. The global impact of the 1929 economic crash and the Great Depression amplified a quest for food security in Europe and economic autonomy worldwide. Demands for relief from the instability and inequality linked to globalization forged democracies and dictatorships alike, from Gandhi’s India to America’s New Deal and Hitler’s Third Reich. Immigration restrictions, racially constituted notions of citizenship, anti-Semitism, and violent outbursts of hatred of the “other” became the norm―coming to genocidal fruition in the Second World War. Millions across the political spectrum sought refuge from the imagined and real threats of the global economy in ways strikingly reminiscent of our contemporary political new movements emerged focused on homegrown and local foods, domestically produced clothing and other goods, and back-to-the-land communities. Rich with astonishing detail gleaned from Zahra’s unparalleled archival research in five languages, Against the World is a poignant and thorough exhumation of the popular sources of resistance to globalization. With anti-globalism a major tenet of today’s extremist agendas, Zahra's arrestingly clearsighted and wide-angled account is essential reading to grapple with our divided present. 30 illustrations

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, World History, Economics, War, 20th Century

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Peter Tillman]

Rave NY Times review by Jennifer Szalai:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/bo...
Excerpt:
"I was so rapt by “Against the World” that it was only when sitting down to write about it that I realized how resistant it is to a neat summary, because there isn’t a single story Zahra tells. In addition to Ford, Schwimmer and Hitler, her characters include the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, an anarchist labor activist named Rose Pesotta (born Raikhel Peisoty) and the Czech shoe manufacturer Tomas Bat’a. Every story in this book is relevant and absorbing; Zahra plaits her narrative strands together with such deliberation and skill that nothing is out of place."

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a fairly broad survey of world history between the World Wars. That does not seem unusual as a starting point — there was a lot of history between 1910 and 1950 and historian have written a lot of books about it. So what is so good about this book? To start with, the author is not just any historian but the Hanna Holborn Grey Professor of East European History at the University of Chicago. … and her book is a highly focused effort to analyze the interwar period in terms of a worldwide retreat from globalism into a world of hyper nationalisms, trade wars, depression, and finally two world wars. The world of 1913 was the most globally interconnected world in history, reaching a level of connection that was not matched until the 1980s and 1990s after the fall of Communism. It was a time of conflicts, racial and political animosities, and yes even tariffs (Smoot-Hawley in 1930).

This thorough and well written history is written to inform readers about today. What could happen if massive tariffs are imposed and global trade wars break out? What could happen if diplomacy retreats and hostile rhetoric takes its place? What will happen to large national economies when global trade collapses? If you are interested in reading about the historical precedents for all the strange things that are happening now, this is the book for you!

This is an excellent and well written book that is organized by chapters, with each chapter telling a separate but powerful story. There are lots of references in case one wishes to read more, but this book will be more than enough to prompt deep thinking. I should be required reading in governmental offices - although if it was, it would not be as valuable as it is.

The stories are too complex to summarize here but Professor Zahra has done her homework well and provided a huge service to readers.

I highly recommend this book.

[Adrian Ganic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today’s deepest political rifts are driven by globalization. The seemingly inexorable deepening of ties between economies and especially between transnational elites produces real aggregate gains, but distributes them winner-take-most. The many losers, whether nation-states facing dilution of their very sovereignty, industries exposed to more advanced or cheaper foreign competitors, or citizens convinced that national leaders and cultural shapers are determined to delegitimize their (deplorable) way of life, look for a champion to validate their economic and cultural grievances, to build a wall, to insulate them from globalization.

Tara Zahra, the MacArthur genius grantee and professor of history at the University of Chicago, reminds us in her timely and important new book Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars that whether Twain said it or not, history really does rhyme. While any decent history major can flag the decades leading to the First World War as a period of increasing global integration, fewer know much about that era’s fledgling anti-globalist movements. Already in the late 19th century, there was fretting in some nations over the arrival of indigestible migrants and in others, over their departure. Everyone in this camp was concerned that increased mobility would make women more uppity and some fingered “Jewish” travel agents for the whole mess.

The Great War and later the Great Depression accelerated movements toward autarky, not least but not exclusively in central Europe, where the British blockade nearly starved out residents of Vienna, Berlin, and other unfortunate cities. After the war, and this is the, um, meat of Zahra’s book, nations launched mostly unsuccessful efforts to achieve agricultural and broader economic self-sufficiency. For Mussolini, this meant draining swamps and building new Italian farm cities. In India, Gandhi pressed citizens to make their own clothes rather than rely on (cheaper and more comfortable) imports. Britain introduced the imperial preference system, and propagandized citizens to buy British, or Canadian, Australian, South African... Even FDR delivered a “Department of Subsistence Homesteads” that duly set about building Jersey Homesteads, envisioned as a self-sufficient cooperative community that would both resettle Jewish garment workers and “disassociate them from the evils of global capitalism and urban life.” One commonality: all these schemes depended upon massive, uncompensated female labor and not coincidentally reinforced traditional patriarchal family structures.

As the U.S. example suggests, autarky was tied to not just to cultivating food but to cultivating the right kind of people. When Hitler tried to make farmers out of urban Germans, Nazi bureaucrats strained to assure that “Settlers must be truly valuable, racially flawless, hereditarily-genetically and medically tested as well as people of proven character.” The initial plan was to settle them in Germany’s eastern provinces, but the definition of East would expand to include Poland and beyond. Post WWI empires, Zahra concludes, were themselves agents of autarchy, expanding at the behest of metropole powers chasing the self-sufficiency will-o-wisp.

A key point here is that anti-globalism wasn’t a top-down phenomenon. Rather, states partly were responding to demands from a significant and, in the Depression era, growing segment of public opinion. “The era between the two world wars,” Zahra concludes, “was defined by attempts to resolve mounting tensions between globalization on the one hand and equality, state sovereignty, and mass politics on the other.”

This short account can not do justice to the breadth of Zahra’s research. Agriculture was hardly the only arena for the futile struggle toward self-sufficiency. Zahra integrates nicely stories of interesting figures. Some, like the feminist/peace activist Rosika Schwimmer have been overlooked. Others like the bigot Henry Ford, less so. Possibly Zahra’s most resonant passage describes the “graduation ceremony” from a Ford program to “Americanize” its workers:

"The famous graduation ceremony from Ford’s English School was staged on a baseball field and conducted by the school principal, dressed as Uncle Sam. The ‘graduates’ arrived in national costumes and sang songs from their homelands as they climbed a ladder into a giant papier-mâché ‘melting pot.’ They emerged from the other side as ‘Americans,’ dressed in derby hats and polka-dot ties and singing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.’

This is a well-written book very suitable for general readers. Don’t be put off by the academic sounding title. 5 stars.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tara Zahra's Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars covers a lot of ground in exploring how different nations, and individuals within them, focused inward or attempted to establish a new world order, to rebuild or restructure in response to the first world war and the Great Depression. The central term of this work is autarky defined as nations seeking economic independence or self-sufficiency. Zahra explores this concept in places it succeeded and failed and how it continues to shape our society.

As the world grew smaller in the late 19th century and early 20th century with the advent of more accessible travel and speedier communication methods, we grew more inter connected. But this process was not all embraced, and Zahra looks at both those who benefited and the reactionaries and victims of globalization.

Despite the title, Zahra does expand the scope to address some content from before 1914 and when discussing Germany does extend beyond the end of World War II. While there are some sections about the League of Nations, India and other colonial territories, the bulk of the book is focused on European nations and the United States in the inter war years.

Some of the specific individuals highlighted throughout the book are pacifist and feminist Rosika Schwimmer, industrialist and anti-semite Henry Ford, fascist leader Hitler and Mussolini, Ghandi, Stefan Zweig or the Bat'a shoe company.

Looking at events that occurred a century, or almost a century ago, Zahra excellently surveys many of the challenges and tensions that factored in the eventuality of World War II and the peace that would follow. Recommended to any reader of 20th century history.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Costantino Andrea De Luca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sembravano esserci tutti gli ingredienti giusti per un libro meraviglioso: argomento interessante, autrice affidabile e prosa scorrevole. Purtroppo il risultato si è rivelato assai modesto.

L'introduzione promette di mostrare come, nella prima metà del Novecento, si sia passati da un mondo "aperto" e "globalizzato" a uno dominato dai nazionalismi. Il problema è che l'autrice si perde spesso a raccontare eventi marginali o scollegati rispetto al tema di fondo. Al posto di una narrazione coerente, ci si trova a leggere tanti episodi casuali e dimenticabili avvenuti tra le due guerre mondiali.

Ci sono accenni sparsi all'antisemitismo, al femminismo, agli operai, agli industriali, ai sostenitori dell'agricoltura domestica, a Gandhi, a Ford... ma sembra tutto mescolato insieme senza ordine e senza meta. Francamente ho già scordato buona parte del libro.

Nonostante tutto, l'autrice ha una prosa fluida e sa maneggiare le fonti. Cita molti giornali e personaggi poco noti, e ogni tanto tira fuori aneddoti gradevoli. C'è quindi qualche aspetto positivo, ma nel complesso il libro non convince.

[Levon La Vida Loca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I will recommend this one to anyone and everyone. I hope the author writes more books in the same vein covering different eras. There is a spiritual withdrawal and inwardness that I find comforting - that we’re not alone.

[Logan Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book for book club! A great first read. Lots of good fun fact and history side quests that you don’t read about in your usual textbook.

[Rowan Scarpino · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the informed reader is constantly cognizant of clear parallels between the book's topic and present-day political insecurity, Zahra never explicitly discusses these parallels. This is surprising, considering just how incredible the parallels are-- Zahra does a fantastic job detailing anti-globalist and nationalist reactions to pandemics, immigration, economic dependency, poverty, and shifting hegemonic dynamics. I cannot imagine the amount of archives digging she must have done-- the book is a feat of historical documentation if nothing else. But where the book gained points for historical documentation, it lost points for historical analysis. I was left feeling totally unsatisfied, wishing for a conclusory chapter offering musings on this history's relevance today and comparing similarities and differences in interwar vs. present-day anti-globalism trends.

The book was highly eurocentric. It felt like Zahra threw in the chapter about India just to check a box, and because it was an easily accessible example that appeared in her research on the UK. The book's argument would actually benefit greatly from a discussion on anti-globalism outside of the U.S. and Europe since the same trends were 100% present in the developing world. Throughout Africa and the Caribbean, the Pan-Africanist movement enjoyed a moment of true fashionability as Africans sought to eschew their colonial powers and exert their own nationalism. While certainly inspirational, nationalism is by definition exclusionary and anti-global. Another example that would have aligned well with the book's focus on the world wars is Japan. Imperial Japan strove for autarky as its economy developed, and the emergence of Zaibatsu players was buoyed by an industrial policy reliant tariffs. And, like Germany, Japan perceived imperial expansion as a means of achieving total self-sufficiency by gaining new raw materials and thereby reducing reliance on global trade. Anti-League of Nation sentiments were widespread, and some more extreme factions of Japanese politics viewed globalization as an explicit threat to Japanese identity. This was exacerbated by unequal treaties that disadvantaged Japanese citizens and businesses, much like the Paris Treaties. The list of similarities goes on. Leaving out Japan from this book was, in my opinion, a major oversight.

Some reflections:
- Today's limited appetite for free trade and the explosion of 'economic nationalism' (China 301 tariffs, growth of financial sanctions and export controls as key tools of foreign policy, total abandonment of WTO system as a result of insufficient national security offramps) essentially totally mirrors interwar economic nationalism
- Food security and food sovereignty play an outsized role in public perception of economic independence.
- Wheat import imbalance between Germany/UK mirrors today's wheat market distortions as a result of Russia/Ukraine war and related sanctions.
- Connection between China-US food trade and potential China leverage to target US farmers in the event of an escalated sanctions scenario upon a Taiwan contingency?
- Paris Treaties offer a broader commentary on the perils of a victors' peace.
- The Allies' overly retributive treatment of Germany in the Paris Treaties backfired-- rather than forcing Germany to downsize and become more dependent on the Allies, Germany, having been forcibly ejected from the global economy, became more self-sufficient. I worry that this is what the US is doing to China, Russia, Iran, + friends. By forcing them out of dollar economies and depriving them of access to global markets, the US is incentivizing them to become self-sufficient and adaptive through shadow, illicit global economies based on anti-Western coalition-building.
- Mussolini's "Battle for Grain" invigorated by League of Nations sanctions on Italy. Post-sanctions, Mussolini publicly advocated for full-blown autarky. Again, by overusing sanctions, are the US and international financial institutions pushing states in the Global South who simply want economic sovereignty and who are otherwise ideologically neutral in great-power competition toward an anti-western coalition of adversaries? BRICS
- Developing economies refusing the League of Nation's loans to preserve their economic sovereignty, arguing that "the loss of democracy was preferable to the loss of sovereignty" mirrors the Global Southern perception today that IMF, World Bank, and other global institutions have operated in a system designed to keep developing economies underwater and preserve the power of Global Northern economies. As sovereign debt balloons, with the IMF literally owning the GDP of entire countries (Argentina), the Global South is increasingly attempting to take matters into their own hands, leverage collective weight of their economies (BRICS). Alternatively, voters are willing to vote out democracy in a last-ditch effort to exert economic control.
- Hyper parallel rhetoric between the failing League of Nations and the current state of the UN-- "Can the League be Saved?" headline is repeated constantly for the UN
- Spanish flu discourse mirrors Covid discourse. San Fransisco rhetoric calling Spanish flu the "China virus". Jews blamed, a la RFK Jr. and others' Covid conspiracy theories. Overall shuttering of borders and using Spanish flu as a pretext for Allied intervention, violation of privacy, mobility, and human rights. However, it is interesting that the Spanish flu did not generate conspiracies outside of "other"-blaming. Are the health system infrastructure and anti-science Covid conspiracies uniquely reflective of modern anti-globalism?
- Ultimately, the perception of democracy and the people's desire for democracy is directly related to economic, social, and cultural rights. When democracies-- from the US to Europe-- ignore economic and social rights, deep inequalities foment anti-globalism and pro-war or pro-authoritarian sentiments.
- Co-optation of Bretton Woods by neolibs. Bretton Woods agenda discussed how a market unfettered by regulation or state intervention created the preconditions for fascism. Later, Bretton Woods system was used as the bedrock for a market unfettered by regulation or state intervention. Sigh.
- "The nonaligned movement," led by major Global Southern economic players (read: India and the Asian Tigers) to levy collective power over the UNSC countries. Nothing has changed. Today, BRICS attempts the same thing, ostensibly combatting the global economic dominance. "Nonaligned movement" countries have grown richer in terms of GDP, but no more equal.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped this would be an informative read but, unfortunately, I’m not sure I picked up much. My biggest criticism of the book is that it wasn’t orgs kzed or edited that well. There were some themes, some recurring topics and some sort of chronology but it almost felt like all those references she lists at the back of the book were thrown into a salad spinner and out came the book.

Internationalism, globalism, anti-globalism, anti-internationalism, autarky in Ireland, France, Germany, Russia …… sprinkle in a heavy dose of anti-colonialism, antisemitism.

Sprinkled elsewhere are important characters like Henry Ford.

It felt that I was reading a term paper composed of a lot of research index cards rather than a well-written descriptive story about something important.

[Kevin Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone closely identified with the anti-globalization movement that reached its U.S. zenith at the "demonstration of the century" in Seattle in 1999, I needed to read this book. Tara Zahra caught my ear when interviewed about "Against the World" on NPR in February. For once, I wrote down the title of a book being reviewed on the radio.

Zahra spent several years of her life studying the history of efforts to create a global capitalist market, with a special focus on the reaction to this grand global ambition between the world wars. As a trained historian resigned to spending hours in archives, and a woman commanding five languages, she was well-positioned to do the job. As a great writer, she was just the one to do it well.

Fascism stars as the most prominent expression of the reaction to globalization, but the fascists were by no means alone. For Zahra, "As long as globalization exacerbated inequality and compromised sovereignty, people would oppose it, using mass politics and nationalism as their weapon." And so it is that the story she tells is of opposition to the unfettered global market from left, right, and center.

An important part of the story is the intentional and consistent identification of the Jews with all of the negative aspects of globalization so that antisemitism takes center stage in xenophobic opposition to globalization. The reader already knows the unthinkable endpoint of that tragedy.

Zahra's story ends with the effort to reconstruct a more equitable global economic framework after World War II. She outlines the improvements put in place at Bretton Woods, but also suggests the many shortcomings of that framework. Over time, those shortcomings expressed themselves in the accelerated global inequities denounced in Seattle. As we know, Seattle was not the only answer of mass politics to the dislocations of globalization. The man with the red MAGA hat rode globalization's discontents to the U.S. presidency in 2016, and he was not alone.

In 1991, one of my heroes, Jeremy Brecher, published, "Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction from the Bottom Up," extolling the virtues and incredible potential of global cooperation, but highlighting all the ways in which the inequities of the postwar economic order undermined that vision. Zahra's book is a cautionary tale about the horrific dangers of our inability to find our way to that new international economic order. Those dangers are surely evident to anyone paying attention today.

Feel free to read this book while operating heavy equipment. Not really, but Zahra stocks her book with fascinating characters and tells a story rather than reproducing an archive. One of her heroes is Rosika Schwimmer, a Hungarian Jewish feminist internationalist with whom our author is clearly fascinated. Introduced in the book's first line and laid to rest in the final line of the epilogue, Schwimmer's story encapsulates all that Zahra's research has to tell us. We can only hope that a full biography of this amazing woman might be next.

[Andrew Canfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars is an informative book on the interwar years. It was written by University of Chicago professor and historian Tara Zahra, and it is evident that she had a keen eye for piecing together the trends that made the period after the Great War such a time of retrenchment on idealism.

The world in from 1918 until the 1930s had analogies to goings-on around the world in the 2020s, and it is unlikely a single reader will finish this book without making that connection. There is even a pandemic and subsequent unpredictable outcomes that played out in the years which followed: the point is made that the Spanish Flu epidemic coupled with the First World War to greatly damage the hope for a more idealistic world.

Against the World largely focused on the West in the years after the Treaty of Versailles, and read with hindsight it can be viewed as putting forward a framework in which to understand what brought about the Second World War. The period of mass migration which had marked the end of the previous century ended with the passing of nativistic laws in the U.S. and Europe in the 1920s, and these were matched, especially with Smoot-Hawley, with the enactment of massive tariff trade barriers.

The book is by and large about a reaction against globalization, and the parallels with current movements in the U.S. and Europe (from right wing anti-immigrant politics to anti-internationalist parties to pushback against free trade) are laid out well by Zahra. The seeking out of scapegoats, which in Against the World largely turn out to be those of Jewish heritage, was shown to be a byproduct of the inward turn nations across the West took during the interwar years.

Readers can expect to hear about Gandhi's push for nationalism and economic independence in India, but most of the narrative looks at things like the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy (with Gabrielle D'Annunzio playing a big early role) and features a cast of compelling people ranging from Rosika Schwimmer to references to the 1999 anti-World Trade Organization protests in Seattle.

Zahra did nice work researching and writing this book, but it just felt like it was missing something.

There was nothing really wrong with it, and there is a lot that can be applied to the current paroxysms of nationalism and nativism across the Western world. But the manner in which the story was laid out was just lacking; a work on such an interesting topic should have possessed a zip and forward momentum that this book did not possess.

But there is a good bit to be learned thanks to Against the World, and Zahra deserves credit for putting together such a timely work of nonfiction.


-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado

[Cgallozzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are numerous themes here:

* Setup history of 'globalization' during the late 19th and early 20th century; increase in travel; increase in migration; increase in cross-border flows of $, goods and ideas.

* Description of the cross-currents (hypocrisy) associated with Henry Ford among others:
. Ford used immigrant labor when convenient.
. Ford expected the world to be his market - building subsidiaries/plants in Europe/South America.
. Ford was a virulent nationalist - railed against "Global Finance" and "Jews/Jewish Conspiracy".

* Zahra provides almost a selected country perspective - that was unique to me. Details about the 'between the wars' stories of 'n' countries - Germany and Italy as examples. Discontent emerged in Italy from their perspective of maltreatment by the victorious Allies - as Italy was not awarded all the 'things' it wished. This discontentment along with lack of food (food scarcity is mentioned prominently) - led the to the rise of demagogues (Gabrielle D'Annunzio and Mussolini) - which eventually seized power denouncing Globalization and advancing a model of 'self-sufficiency' (which was NEVER achieved). In this model women would redirect their purchases to 'Italian or German made' products, cook country specific food and etc., with the goal of reducing food imports.

* Zahra admits that in order to enlist the masses in this effort - there must have been (was) real resentment/backlash towards the impacts of Globalization - whose benefits were not equally shared; but whose costs were significant but borne by only some portions of the populations.

*. This country-by-country perspective was unique and valuable.

*. Zahra takes no general positions - but indicates that the recent Pandemic has retarded Globalization for the time being. The situation that the U.S. couldn't produce hospital protective gear for its own use - and had to import it at the start of the Pandemic was duly noted.

*. Just as globalization in the 19th and early 20th century provided benefits to some - but costs to many - while it was never beloved.....it didn't 'die' - now Anti-Globalization is on the rise with self-sufficiency or equivalent the goal. Self-Sufficiency was NEVER achieved during the last cycle. We shall see how long this new order lasts and what 'new(er)' order will replace it.

Book should be of interest to those who read economics and history.

Carl Gallozzi
Cgallozzi@comcast.net

[Michael Hassel Shearer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Against The World : Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars by Tara Zahira. This book more than exceeded my expectations based upon the title. It is an excellent read and should be of interest to anyone wanting to understand the Western world and what shaped people and country’s opinions that led to WW II. I learned many facts and aspects of how the 1st World War changed the way people and nations changed after the war. For example, prior to WWI it was possible if you had money to travel anywhere no passport or visa required. There was growing globalization so that many products and food were available far from where they were produced. But the war changed all this and “de-globalization or autarky meaning countries looked to be self-sufficient became the goal. This led to an increase in nationalism and looking to ban those who were different. The Jews of course rose to the top of this list and in many cases became stateless. Even the US throughout of the country over 1 million American born Mexican children in order to make America “more pure”. Immigration to the US from the leading European countries was reduced by a factor of 100 after the war. So much of this seems relevant today. And for sure the most important factor that led to WW II in my opinion was the Treaty of Versailles that punished Germany so severely that the rise of a populist like Hitler becomes easy to understand. Led by the US, a blockade on food entering Germany began with the treaty. People in Germany and other Eastern European countries were starving. There is so much more in this book in terms of loss of empire, resetting state boundaries and the reason for the rise of Fascism and Communism that the author does a reasonable job of presenting. One last point I think to consider about this book is how will we treat Russia after the current war is over. Too severe of punishment could lead to a Russia that will later lash out just as Germany did. All in all a book well worth the read.

[Brad Eastman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Zahra discusses the forces of globalism and the various critiques of globalism from the left and right that developed in the first half of the 20th Century. Ms. Zahra is an academic historian with an impressive educational pedigree. This book is very detailed. Still, Ms. Zahra writes in a conversational, narrative style, free of theory and academic jargon that makes this a great read for the non-academic.

Ms. Zahra tells the story of individuals buffeted by great events of a world economy that very few understood. Reactions from a 100 years ago sound depressingly similar to today - anti-immigration sentiment, conservative backlash against women and minorities, economic nationalism. I do not know if Ms. Zahra intentionally set out to remind us that there is nothing new under the sun, but she succeeded spectacularly. In her own words, she writes, "The past is supposed to help us better understand the present. But in this case, I have been more surprised by the ways in which the present has altered the way I see the past."

Trough this whole time, Ms. Zahra reminds us throughout the world the emblems of globalism were the Jews. Disastrous consequences befell Jews in many societies because of this association of somehow being transnational and separate. Of course, the antisemitism reached its murderous peak in Nazi Germany.

Ultimately, Ms. Zahra's book is a warning to the critics of globalism that it is almost important to go it alone in the world of today, much less the world of 100 years ago. It is also a warning to internationalists to not forget that history and economies are more than large aggregates of statistics, but individuals. If you push those individuals too fast without adequate safeguards for their livelihoods, they will provide fertile ground for demagogues promising to take us back to the golden age.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An expertly woven analysis of the inter-war years and the medley of ideologies that drove anti-globalism. Zahra combines macro-level analysis with individual stories in a way that does justice to both. While taking particular care to spotlight the experience of women and of Jews, she takes what strikes me as a genuinely intersectional approach, considering not only the impact on, and agency of, on the marginalised but also the compounding importance of different identities: female Jews, migrant Italians, northern labourers.

The parallels with today's world are striking and scary, but Zahra isn't explicit about them: she doesn't need to be. After a period of passportless travel and global trade, and with technology and the franchise catalysing new forms of political organising, right wing (and fascist) as well as left wing (and communist) ideologies responded to the Great War and the Great Depression with rejections of internationalism (trade, cooperation, migration, and Jews - portrayed as the embodiment of rootless international capital). They embraced forms of autarchy, though these generally involved sacrifice in living standards, which only the most ardently ideological were willing to do. And so to maintain living standards, countries needed to make better use of 'their' territory (including 'their' colonies), expel undesirables, or expand their territory.

Today, countries are rushing for control of the minerals critical for AI and the energy transition, against a backdrop of collapsed faith in institutions, including global institutions, and a rising tide of hate against the 'others' who are blamed for the erosion of living standards, especially immigrants. All of this now, as then, fuelled by new technologies controlled by a narrow political elite. It didn't end well in the 1930s.

[Apoorva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tara Zahra's chilling historical research, Against the World, eerily mirrors the current state of the world in 2025. Zahra deftly examines how anti-globalist attitudes shaped politics during the interwar period, when anti-liberalism mass movements on both the left and right veered toward nativism, protectionism, and authoritarian nationalism as a result of globalization, economic crisis, and cultural upheaval.
Zahra examines nationalistic movements, economic policies, and the perplexing psychology of a rapidly changing society. She discusses migratory waves, farmers concerned about foreign grain, and populist leaders capitalizing on these fears. Zahra demonstrates how authoritarianism stemmed from a crisis of identity, security, and sovereignty. The stories of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century anti-liberalism and globalization,parallel today's growing nativism, and are truly unsettling.
However, Zahra's sympathetic research reveals anti-globalism as a symptom of uncertainty, fear, and a desire for control in an ever-changing environment, and thereby gives us ideas for how to combat it today. I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to fight tooth & nail for the ideals of liberalism, enlightenment & scientific revolution, as it comes under existential attack from those opposed to its egalitarian end goals.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a 5 star if you love history and interested in economics, and especially if you like to understand the chaos between the two world wars: Why did we get right-wing fascists in Germany and Italy? Why were Jews scapegoats for economic and political woes? How much are the victorious allies (Wilson & company) to blame for the 'inevitable' WWII, or the industrialists and conservatives to blame for the world-wide depression?

As the title suggests, it's a deep dive into how economists, social scientists, industrialists, and politicians disagreed about the role and impact of globalism - both economic and cultural. Given the 21st century turn towards global economies and then the severe backlash, it's a good history lesson and fascinating story including Henry Ford, the Bata shoe company, Gandhi, and 'back to sustainable, self-reliant' movements by both progressive and right-wing groups.

[Roland Glotzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book is an interesting read about the interwar period which is not covered in depth in most history books which focus more on the first and second world wars, I found it excessively long and detailed and eventually found it a bit boring. On the positive side, the book makes us reflect on the parallels between that interwar period and the current times. I believe that an additional part discussing these parallels (increased nationalism, impact of a pandemic on the global economy, increase of inequality) would have made the book more interesting though I can understand that as a historian Tara Zahra preferred to focus on her field of expertise rather than getting involved in a discussion of contemporary geopolitics.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the anti-globalism (or isolationist) movements between the World Wars. The lack of the US in the League of Nations and the punishing terms of the Paris Treaty simultaneously turned countries inward and drove them to "colonize" new areas. The Fascist regimes of Italy and Germany in particular used the post WWI situation to gain power and promote a vision of the world centered on their countries. Not a view of the time between wars that American's usually see as the roaring 20's and Great Depression get center stage. I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher through the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.

[Stuart Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think there is a tendency for many to view World War I as some far distant conflict whose causes and consequences have all been resolved. This work leaves no doubt that WWI was truly catastrophic and upended the world socially, politically, and economically, creating an eventually toxic mash of conflicting strains of thought about what this "new" world should be--conflicts which persist today. For the serious student of 20th century history.

[Andres Alejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t like to write reviews - so this one will suck, but I wanted to emphasize how good this was. Highly recommend it to anyone wanting to understand the dark cloud that’s seems to hang over us these days. Though much of the events covered took place almost 100 years ago, human nature isn’t new, and it was fascinating to see so many of the trends popular in politics today are in many ways just regurgitations of the past. Anyways, check it out and message me when you do!

[Katie McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

My history classes used to gloss over the time period between the two world wars, which is wild given the drastic changes in economic, cultural, and social change that have reverberating effects today. This book was the best comprehensive, comparative analysis of the rise of fascism and other forms of anti-globalization during this time period I have read. It also has eerie parallels to today, something the author aptly notes in the acknowledgments.

[Hiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very relevant to current politics as we enter an era of increased anti-globalism. Strong and nuanced arguments focused on Central Europe, tracing anti globalism to globalist policies and actions that don’t protect basic human needs and security. Discusses why states feel the need for self sufficiency for various different reasons. Super interesting and well written, although I do wish it discussed more colonized states other than just one chapter on India

[Darien Tebbe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic, one I didn't know much about. Despite that, and the things I learned, the book was just too dense for me. Some anecdotal evidence is great, it gives perspective. This much left me begging for the end of the chapters.

Great information, but written in a way too difficult to grasp it all.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

pendulum

Interesting book in that the author reframes the period between the world wars as a pendulum swinging from globalization to nationalism resulting in axis dictators. Most would say World War II was a continuation of unresolved issues from the First World War, the author makes you look at it in a different frame.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first 2 chapters and skimmed the rest: anti-globalization, xenophobia, and strict immigration policies—point taken, nothing changes. Each chapter focuses on an example supporting the thesis. Some examples are about individuals and others are as well-known as the 1918 flu. Jews are always scapegoats. I simply do not understand it. 🤨

[spencer wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly relevant book in today's socio-political climate, that draws connections throughout history to show readers 'how we got here'. The influences of wars, pandemics, and political ideologies of the past are reviewed and connected to the events of today.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book to be unfocused and I was never sure of what the point was. A better description would be, "Things happened between the wars."



Disclaimer: I received this book through Giveaways.

[Paloma Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating examples, interesting to see parallels - anti-immigrant movements, disease prevention during the Spanish flu era, protectionist doctrines re. tariffs, and how globalism - for better or for worse - has only become a larger part of our lives.