Book Review Essay: A Not-So-Flat World? Dominant and Alternative Accounts of Globalization

Abstract

Thomas Friedman’s (2007) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century has become seen as an authoritative text on globalization within some academic circles and a bestseller. In critically reviewing the book I put its framework, underlying ideas and assumptions into a dialogue with arguments in three recent scholarly books (Boron, 2005; Mathew, 2005; and McNally, 2002), which provide critical insights into the phenomena and debates associated with capitalist globalization. Further, I argue that The World is Flat reproduces a dominant narrative of American supremacy and anxiety in an era of rapid global change which obscures the historical, political and economic roots of capitalist globalization, ignores or dimisses its social costs, and views much of the world and its peoples through a deeply colonial and orientalist lens.

Keywords

globalization imperialism communication technology corporate power social justice

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