Ages of Globalization

Today’s most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity’s story has always been on a global scale. In this book, Jeffrey D. Sachs, renowned economist and expert on sustainable development, turns to world history to shed light on how we can meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.Sachs takes readers through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today’s globalization. Along the way, he considers how the interplay of geography, technology, and institutions influenced the Neolithic revolution; the role of the horse in the emergence of empires; the spread of large land-based empires in the classical age; the rise of global empires after the opening of sea routes from Europe to Asia and the Americas; and the industrial age. The dynamics of these past waves, Sachs demonstrates, offer fresh perspective on the ongoing processes taking place in our own time—a globalization based on digital technologies. Sachs emphasizes the need for new methods of international governance and cooperation to prevent conflicts and to achieve economic, social, and environmental objectives aligned with sustainable development. The Ages of Globalization is a vital book for all readers aiming to make sense of our rapidly changing world.

Sachs has produced a masterpiece—its scope is breathtaking, its insights stimulating, and its conceptual innovation pathbreaking. For those seeking a story about where humanity has come from and is going to, his book is a story with many lessons and hopes for the future. At once clear-headed and opinionated, he provides a roadmap for what we could and should do for our grandchildren. A wonderful book., This romp through world history, by the famous economist Jeffrey Sachs, summarizes most of what you really need to know about the history of the last 70,000 years. Buy just this one book: it will let you throw away dozens of specialized books that you already own!, Understanding history can help steer the future, yet economic history is too often missing from the economics curricula. Sachs goes directly against this trend by providing a tour de force historical account on how humans, technology, and nature have interacted over the last 72,000 years! Key to the book’s message is that while technological progress has been exponential, our ability to benefit from it has always depended on the ways in which people have chosen to organize themselves. Today this means that while digital technologies provide endless possibilities, public policy and corporate governance decisions are key to determining who benefits. Sustainable and inclusive development will depend on our concrete forms of democratic participation, ethical standards, and the ability to create public spheres that allow us all to flourish. A must-read!, Sachs has produced a brilliant, yet remarkably short, book on the biggest challenges now confronting humanity. He provides a compelling account of how geography, technology, and institutions have combined to shape globalization over 70,000 years, in seven distinct ages. Then he explains what humanity now has to do if it is to escape the environmental, social, and geopolitical calamities that its own staggering successes have brought so close. This book is essential reading., As my special advisor on the Sustainable Development Goals, Jeffrey Sachs consistently emphasized that the world can achieve sustainable development only through bold and forward-looking cooperation on a global scale. In his new panoramic history of globalization, Sachs shows why the imperative of peaceful cooperation is more crucial than ever. Our very survival as a species requires that we understand our common fate. This book will help us to reach that shared understanding.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is University Professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is also director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and has been advisor to three UN secretaries-general. He is a New York Times best-selling author, and his Columbia University Press books include The Age of Sustainable Development (2015), Building the New American Economy (2017), and A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018).