Recommended Reads on Globalization

There's nothing like curling up in front of the fire with a good book over the holidays. With this in mind, our final issue of 2005 highlights books from the World View library on globalization and related issues. Some of these titles go back a few years, but are included as they often still offer the best discussion of many issues. Brief reviews for each of the texts along with links to full length reviews are provided.  These books are available for you to check out from World View.  Please email Rachel Daniels (rdaniels@unc.edu ) to check out a book.

It has been very rewarding working with all of you this year, and seeing the outstanding progress many of you have made in internationalizing your colleges. 

All of us at World View wish you the best this holiday and in the new year.

Recommended Titles

In Defense of Globalization
Jagdish Bhagwati (2004)
"…[Bhagwati] has written an outstandingly effective book—his best popular work to date. Until further notice, In Defense of Globalization becomes the standard general-interest reference, the intelligent layman's handbook, on global economic integration." The Economist

Jihad vs. McWorld
Benjamin R. Barber (1995)
"Mr. Barber is...the first to put Jihad and McWorld together in an inescapable
dialectic...[It] stands as a bold invitation to debate the broad contours and future of society." Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review

Preparing for the Twenty-First Century
Paul Kennedy (1993)
"The most significant book on international affairs published in the late 1980s was Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of The Great Powers… Now, a half-decade later, we have Kennedy's new book, Preparing for The Twenty-First Century, a work not so much of history but of prophecy." James Kurth, Foreign Affairs

The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership
Zbigniew Brezinski (2004)
"Deserves careful attention. It is the work of a demonstrably wise man who got it right when it counted." Washington Post
"One of the most important books on U.S. foreign policy since September 11... The Choice is indispensable." Foreign Policy

The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of World Order
Samuel P. Huntington (1997)
"The Huntington argument that the West should stop intervening in civilizational conflicts it doesn't understand makes a powerful claim that internationalists cannot easily ignore. The question is whether there remain certain human interests that all civilizations had better endorse for our common survival." Michael Ignatieff, The New York Times Book Review

"[Huntington's thesis is that] World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural." Foreign Affairs

The End of History and the Last Man
Francis Fukuyama (1992)
“The most intriguing aspect of this best seller is that its author is a former official of the State Department's policy planning staff, a RAND Corporation analyst and a Harvard Ph.D. in Soviet foreign policy. The causal relationship is not clear between this experience and the controversial thesis that liberal democracy as a system of government has emerged fully victorious over other philosophies such as fascism, communism and socialism.…We are indebted to Fukuyama for such an ambitious work of political philosophy, more typical of the European intellectual tradition than our own, and look forward to his next thoughts-beyond the "last man.” Andrew Pierre, Foreign Affairs

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad
Fareed Zakaria (2004)
"Zakaria's provocative and wide-ranging book is eminently worth reading. If not entirely persuasive when dealing with contemporary American politics, he is correct that Americans' obsession with electoral democracy has clouded their understanding of countries such as Russia, China, and South Korea and led at times to disastrous policy choices. This case has been made before, but never as simply and clearly. His book displays a kind of argumentation, grounded in history and political philosophy, of which there is precious little these days, particularly among opinion columnists." John Judis, Foreign Affairs

The Lexus and the Olive Tree
Thomas L. Friedman (2000)
"A spirited and imaginative exploration of our new order of economic globalization.... Not only clear but interesting, not only interesting but necessary to us--first-rate." The New York Times

"A wellspring of economic common sense that will innoculate its readers against the 'globaloney' so prevalent in popular discussions of the subject.... Readers in search of a window onto the problems of the cyberspace-driven 'virtual world economy' of the twenty-first century are unlikely to find a better place to start." Foreign Affairs

The World is Flat
Thomas L. Friedman (2005)
"Eminently worth reading . . . It is Friedman's ability to see a few big truths steadily and whole that makes him the most important columnist in America today." Walter Russell Mead, The New York Times

"...to his great credit, Friedman embraces much of his flat world's complexity, and his reporting brings to vibrant life some beguiling characters and trends…it is also more lively, provocative and sophisticated than the overwhelming bulk of foreign policy commentary these days." Warren Bass, The Washington Post

What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
Bernard Lewis (2002)
"Lewis has done us all--Muslim and non-Muslim alike--a remarkable service" The New York Times Book Review

"Replete with the exceptional historical insight that one has come to expect from the world's foremost Islamic scholar." The Wall Street Journal

Do you have information to share?

Do you have information that you would like to share with other educators across the state? If so, please submit interesting global education programs that are going on in your schools, announcements about global education seminars, new resources that others might find interesting, etc. Please email Neil at nebolick@email.unc.edu with your "update-worthy" items!

Reader Mailbag

If you have comments about any of the information contained in the College Update, shoot us an email! Your comments may appear in this new section of the College Update.

Disclaimer
World View at UNC-Chapel Hill provides information, resources, and announcements for educational purposes only. It does not represent an endorsement of organizations or points of view by World View or The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.