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'After the fall of the Berlin wall, a consensus emerged that the magical combination of free markets and democracy would transform the world into a community of modernized, peace-loving nations, and individuals into civic-minded citizens and consumers. Ethnic hatred, religious zealotry, and other "backward" aspects of underdevelopment would be swept away.'In World on Fire, Amy Chua shows that just the opposite has happened. As global markets open, ethnic conflict worsens and democracy in developing nations turns ugly and violent. Examining the actual impact of economic globalisation across the world, Chua shows how free markets have concentrated disproportionate, often spectacular wealth in the hands of resented ethnic minorities. These 'market-dominant minorities' - from Chinese in Southeast Asia to Jews in post-Communist Russia, to, on a global scale, the US itself - invariably become targets of resentment and violence. Chua is not an anti-globalist. But she warns that, far from making the world a better place, democracy and capitalism - at least in the raw form in which they are currently being exported - are intensifying ethnic resentment and global violence, with potentially catastrophic results.

For over a decade now, the reigning consensus has held that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this astute, original, and surprising investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy.
Chua shows how in non-Western countries around the globe, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These "market-dominant minorities" - Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia - become objects of violent hatred. At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, unleashing ethnic demagoguery, confiscation, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the United States has become the world's most visible market-dominant minority, a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism around the world. Chua is a friend of globalization, but she urges us to find ways to spread its benefits and curb its most destructive aspects.