Globalization : an introduction to the end of the known world / Charles Lemert.

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: Unknown worlds -- World under siege: the dark side of globalization -- What is globalization? Economic, political, and cultural clashes -- When did globalization begin? -- Globalization in the modern world-system, 1500-1914 -- Changing global structures in the short twentieth century, 1914-1991 -- The globalization debates: after the short twentieth century and into the twenty-first -- The future of globalization: the unknown worlds to come

"Globalization: An Introduction to the End of the Known World" surveys the history of globalization from the earliest of ancient texts through contemporary debates and the prospects for anticipating the new worlds to come. At the end of the twentieth century, debates over the nature of globalization were unable to agree on a simple resolution, except to say that globalization is economic, political, and cultural all at once. Cultural globalization affects everyone with a smartphone, on which global youth from Los Angeles to Jakarta listen to Jay-Z and Beyonce. States are torn in several directions at once by unsettling economic, political, and cultural forces. Lemert concludes with a serious outline of the possible ways of imagining what the still-unknown global world will become next ways including optimism, caution, and skepticism." [amazon.com]