Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century

"Magisterial history...one of the most comprehensive histories of modern capitalism yet written." ―Michael Hirsh, New York Times Book Review

In 1900 international trade reached unprecedented levels and the world's economies were more open to one another than ever before. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet the entire edifice collapsed in a few months in 1914.

Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. Jeffry A. Frieden's insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, the divisions of the Cold War world, and the turn again toward global integration at the end of the century. His history is full of character and event, as entertaining as it is enlightening.

Jeffry Frieden is Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University and Professor of Government emeritus at Harvard University. He specializes in the politics of international economic relations. Frieden is the author of Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (2007; second updated edition 2020); of Currency Politics: The Political Economy of Exchange Rate Policy (2015); and the co-author (with Menzie Chinn) of Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery (2012). Frieden is also the author of Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America, 1965–1985 (1992), of Banking on the World: The Politics of American International Finance (1987), and the co-author or co-editor of over a dozen other books on related topics. His articles on the politics of international economic issues have appeared in a wide variety of scholarly and general-interest publications.