Underground Empire – How America Weaponized the World Economy
By: Henry Farrell, Abraham L. Newman – Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University
Deep beneath our feet, vast and sprawling, lies one of the most sophisticated empires the world has ever known. At first glance, it might not look like much – it is made up of fibre optic cables and obscure payment systems. But according to prominent political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, the United States has turned the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, whether they are rivals or allies, allowing it to maintain global supremacy.
Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman paint a persuasively alarming picture of just how American power has become entrenched deep in the plumbing of the world economy. Underground Empire is a passionate plea for restraint and reform in the face of a world burdened by all kinds of geopolitical dangers
Helen Thompson, Cambridge University
Deglobalization
By: Edward Ashbee – Copenhagen Business School
The book looks at the original promise held out by globalizing trends which became fully evident at the same time as the dot.com economy became part of everyday life. The book then charts the backlash against “globalism” and the ways in which it became pronounced across much of Europe, North America and Asia. And it asks how far has that backlash, together with the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the rise of “techno-nationalism” led to a stalling or even reversal in globalizing processes.
The analysis disaggregates the different trends that collectively constitute “globalization” and surveys competing perspectives on globalization and reviews the arguments of those who argue that the concept is either myth or hyperbole. The book reveals how globalization is being reconfigured in ways that weaken its former associations with neoliberalism and Americanization thereby laying the basis for a new economic and social settlement.
Nature, Culture, and Inequality – A Comparative and Historical Perspective
By: Thomas Piketty – Paris School of Economics
Thomas Piketty presents a synthesis of his historical and comparative research on inequality. He challenges the idea that there could be natural inequalities and shows that the march toward equality has always depended on political and social struggles, addressing diverse topics such as: education, inheritance, the climate crisis, the taxation of wealth, and gender disparities. […] With a clear, conversational tone, he provides a strong foundation of data and concrete examples of how we can continue to level the playing field.
Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse
By: Colleen Dunlavy – University of Wisconsin–Madison
Colleen Dunlavy puts the history of mass production and distribution in an entirely new light. She reveals that, despite the widely publicized model offered by Henry Ford, mass production techniques did not naturally diffuse throughout the U.S. economy. On the contrary, formidable market forces blocked their diffusion. It was only under the cover of collectively agreed-upon, industrywide standard sizes – orchestrated by the federal government – that competing firms were able to break free of market forces and transition to mass production and distribution. Without government promotion of standard sizes, the twentieth-century American variety of capitalism would have looked markedly less “Fordist.”
Colleen Dunlavy’s Small, Medium, Large is a tour de force, providing a fresh take on the triumph of mass production and mass consumption in the United States. Debunking much of the conventional wisdom, Dunlavy provides a compelling account of the crucial role that state policy played in actively promoting the standardization that was foundational to the Fordist production model and to America’s consumption-driven growth regime. This is essential reading for students of American political and political-economic development.
Kathleen Thelen, MIT
