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The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization by Richard Baldwin The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.
There is no need to convince anyone that globalisation is a fact. Taking that into account, writing a book about globalisation means focusing to something specific about it. Robert Baldwin is straightforward: "This book aims to the change way you think about globalization" (p. 1). Fair enough, at least readers know what they can expect, but the mystery remains: how does the author know what are the reader's thoughts about globalisation. Perhaps a working assumption, a concept commonly used in economic theory, is made about the conventional wisdom on globalisation. One way or the other, at the end of the book the author hopes that "...this book serves as a reminder that today's globalization does not resemble your parents' globalization. And tomorrow's globalization is very likely to be quite different from today's" (p. 301). One thing is undisputable: Baldwin aims to achieve a change in the understanding of globalisation, its content and consequences; this is definitely a positive analysis - as opposed to changing the reader's value judgment or personal perception of globalisation.
In the introduction to the book Baldwin steps forward and spells out six effects of the New Globalisation as he see them: "(1) it affects national economies with a finer degree of resolution, i.e. it is more individual; (2) its impact is more sudden and more uncontrollable; (3) it denationalises comparative advantage; (4) it partly ruptured the compact between G7 workers and G7 firms; (5) it changed the role of distance; (6) it should change how governments think about their policies" (p. 11-13). Well, now readers know all the consequences of the New Globalisation, though not in detail, and they can make up their mind whether to read the book and learn about mechanisms, evidence about them and their details.
The book starts at earnest with its Part I (The Long History of Globalization in Short) with the history of what happened, and with the beginning of globalisation, traced back to 200,000 BCE. Phase One of the globalisation, which lasted up to about 10,000 BCE, is basically the story of humanising the globe. With prehistoric transportation technology it was easier to move...