Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 238
•
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-7425-6745-0 • Hardback • January 2010 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-0-7425-6746-7 • Paperback • January 2010 • $41.00 • (£35.00)
978-0-7425-6747-4 • eBook • January 2010 • $38.50 • (£30.00)
Michael Veseth is Robert G. Albertson Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Globalization? Or Globaloney?
Chapter 2: Financial Globaloney: Safe as Houses
Chapter 3: The Crash of 2008 and the Global Market Myth
Chapter 4: Golden Arches Globaloney
Chapter 5: The Only Game in Town
Chapter 6: Grassroots Globaloney
Chapter 7: Slow-balization: Using Globalization to Fight Globalization
Chapter 8: Globalization and the French Exception
Chapter 9: The Future of Globalization (and Globaloney)
Michael Veseth's entertaining book is written for a more general audience than standard academic texts and as such represents an attempt to engage the mythology and the rhetoric of globalisation on its own ground. Most interestingly, perhaps, Veseth chooses to take on some of globalisation's harshest critics, suggesting that they are as guilty of conjuring up myths to serve particular claims about the world as are their opponents in the pro-globalisation camp. Veseth's proseis eminently readable while being grounded with solid empirical findings. Globaloney should prove to be of great use in the classroom. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Political Studies Review
This book is destined to please many readers. (Previous Edition Praise)
— P. K. Kresl, Bucknell University; Choice Reviews
Using a term coined by Clare Boothe Luce in 1943 for Vice President Henry Wallace's foreign policy, Veseth critiques today's rhetoric of globalization. He uses case studies and economic concepts to help readers understand globalization's basis in finance and its many complications. Recommended particularly for academic libraries supporting programs in business and economics; libraries should consider purchasing Veseth's previous work as well. Both titles aim to have readers 'think out of the box' when it comes to the concept of globalization. With a valuable extensive bibliography. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Library Journal
Engaging, illuminating, and thought-provoking. (Previous Edition Praise)
— International Review Of Modern Sociology
Veseth . . . succeeds in debunking conventional wisdoms, and his digressions on such subjects as the international wine trade and French snobbery are entertaining. (Previous Edition Praise)
— The Instrumentalist
In Globaloney, Michael Veseth achieves a rare combination: he conveys important economic arguments in a vivid and highly entertaining style. For anyone trying to assess the goods and bads of headlong progress toward a global economy, and trying to sort bogus fears from genuine reasons for concern, this book is a great place to start.
(Previous Edition Praise)
— James Fallows, national correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly, and author of Breaking the News and Looking at the Sun
A lively and informative textbook that brings to life the real meaning of globalization. The author is neither a cheerleader for nor a crusader against globalization. He simply seeks to explain this concept and its various manifestations in an objective fashion. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Nader Entessar, Professor Emeritus, University of South Alabama
Michael Veseth's imaginative account of the varieties of globalization demands the attention of both scholars and students of the world economy. Through original case studies and deeply informed analyses, Veseth presents a fresh picture of a refreshingly diverse and serendipitous globalization. While the media, activists and policymakers generally paint globalization with a single brush, Veseth draws on a broad palette to puncture popular myths and promotes critical thinking. Globaloney is an important new work that advances our understanding of globalization and its effect on society and culture as well as business and finance. (Previous Edition Praise)
— G. Pascal Zachary, author of The Diversity Advantage: Multicultural Identity in the New World Economy
Michael Veseth continues his amiable progress through the enchanted, topsy-turvy world of contemporary economic mythology. A real economist with an observant mind, he provides a series of suave and charming tales from his travels through the real world—stories whose subjects range from Adam Smith to Michael Jordan, from soccer to the French, from mediocre mass food to global good wine. Skillfully blended together, these chase away the goblins of globaloney and leave us with a nicer world than we had thought. (Previous Edition Praise)
— David P. Calleo, Johns Hopkins University
This book presents a novel and engaging critical analysis that incorporates insights from political economy into a story that will appeal to a wide readership. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Jarrod Wiener, University of Kent
Here's a book to break the spell cast by simplistic economic creeds from both left and right. If you want to make fresh discoveries about the global marketplace, Michael Veseth is your man. Don't let his lively, informal prose style fool you. He has a scientist's keen nose for tracking what's true back to its native lair: that wild thicket of fact where prevailing theory just won't fit. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Howard Cutler, executive producer, Commanding Heights Online—The Battle for the World Economy
Michael Veseth's Globaloney is the perfect down-to-earth primer for undergraduates trying to understand the debate over globalization. By focusing on commodities within every student's reach—baloney, Michael Jordan, and soccer balls—Veseth transparently links abstract global processes to real life. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Herman Schwartz, University of Virginia
With his customary verve, Michael Veseth has launched a passionate broadside against what he calls the 'myths' of globalization. Not everyone will agree with his unorthodox views; many will be provoked. But this book deserves to reach a wide audience. In a style both witty and easily accessible, Veseth uses familiar elements of popular culture to challenge conventional thinking. Readers will feast on Globaloney. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Benjamin J. Cohen, Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy, University of California, Santa Barbara
Exposes the way that the rhetoric of globalization creates powerful myths—globaloney—that shape how business, voters, and policymakers act and react
Shows how three globalization myths contributed to the world economic crisis and explains how a more realistic vision of globalization could help create a sustainable global future
Uses real-world case studies to undermine the popular belief that globalization is homogenization and Americanization, revealing the more complex and diverse effects of globalization
Explodes the myth that grassroots groups cannot shape or oppose globalization as we learn how some organizations have found ways to turn globalization against itself
Argues that inherently unstable global finance is the basis for globalization as we know it today, making globalization itself more fragile than is generally appreciated
Shows that if we understand globalization not as monolithic but as fragile, diverse, and many-centered, we can begin to rebuild it as a feasible, sustainable human enterprise
New features
Analyzes the world financial crisis and its impact on globalization
Stresses how the reality of financial globalization differed from its rhetoric and how this disconnect contributed to the ultimate financial meltdown
Explains why the next wave of globalization will be different from the last one—and what will be needed to make it a feasible and sustainable future.