“Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division students, faculty, and general readers.” (Choice, 1 December 2011)
“I highly recommend the brilliant and well reasoned book The Contemporary Global Economy: A History since 1980 by Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., to anyone seeking a well written and comprehensive book on the march of globalization since 1980. The author presents the information, in a format that is readily understood by any reader, as to how the driving forces of economic change operate and how they are clearly visible today.” (Blog Business World, 12 August 2011)
“The book is a lucid and balanced survey, based on extensive research, accessible to the non-specialist.” (GMF, 2011)
“Alfred Eckes provides a broad yet detailed perspective of the economic, commercial and geo political trends which have defined global markets and policies since the 1980s. Spanning developed, transitional and emerging economies, Eckes presents for academics, specialists and the general public a comprehensive analysis and prognosis of complex global shifts.”
―Dr. Irene Finel-Honigman, Columbia University
“For expert and student alike, The Contemporary Global Economy is an approachable yet sophisticated treatment of the tumultuous global economy’s past third of a century. Lively writing complements broad coverage of every important person, issue, and event that have shaped our times. Long the authority in international economic history, Eckes has produced a tour de force that should be included in any library and course.”
―Thomas Zeiler, University of Colorado at Boulder
From the Inside Flap
In The Contemporary Global Economy, Alfred Eckes provides a lively overview of recent turbulence in the world economy for non-specialists. Focusing on the dynamics of globalization since the 1980s, the book views developments historically, explaining how the main motors of economic change work and how we can discern their effects in the world today.
Eckes begins with a brief description of economic change since the nineteenth century, the age of the ‘first global economy’, and indicates how the dramatic change in the world economy since the 1980s led to a new era in global expansion with the rise of China and other emerging powers. He explains how structural imbalances, policy mistakes, and excesses led to the financial crisis of 2007-2010.
The book describes the different aspects of the economy from the role of the World Trade Organization to the workings of financial markets, and the actions of the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Twenty nations. It explains the underlying changes that have affected individuals in their various roles as consumers, producers, workers and citizens around the world, and identifies the challenges for sustainable economic growth in the years ahead. It also examines the underside of globalization, including human trafficking, sweatshops, organized crime, unsafe products, and environmental destruction.
From the Back Cover
In The Contemporary Global Economy, Alfred Eckes provides a lively overview of recent turbulence in the world economy for non-specialists. Focusing on the dynamics of globalization since the 1980s, the book views developments historically, explaining how the main motors of economic change work and how we can discern their effects in the world today.
Eckes begins with a brief description of economic change since the nineteenth century, the age of the ‘first global economy’, and indicates how the dramatic change in the world economy since the 1980s led to a new era in global expansion with the rise of China and other emerging powers. He explains how structural imbalances, policy mistakes, and excesses led to the financial crisis of 2007-2010.
The book describes the different aspects of the economy from the role of the World Trade Organization to the workings of financial markets, and the actions of the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Twenty nations. It explains the underlying changes that have affected individuals in their various roles as consumers, producers, workers and citizens around the world, and identifies the challenges for sustainable economic growth in the years ahead. It also examines the underside of globalization, including human trafficking, sweatshops, organized crime, unsafe products, and environmental destruction.
About the Author
Alfred E. Eckes, Jr., is Ohio Eminent Research Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University and a former Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission. He has published a number of books on international trade and finance, the competition for world resources, and globalization. Eckes is a former president and executive vice president of the International Trade and Finance Association (IT&FA), an organization of academics and professionals from 25 countries. He has served as editor of its journal, the Global Economy Journal.
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