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Title: Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age by Andre Gunder Frank ISBN: 0-520-21474-9 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.42 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: How Asia Once Won (And Could Again)
Comment: Andre Gunder Frank wrote ReOrient to demonstrate that the present Western predominance in the world economy is fairly new. It began when Europe gained control of the New World's natural resources, particularly silver, and used it to "buy a ticket on the Asian train" (Gunder Frank's apt metaphor).
Gunder Frank also speculates that East Asia's present economic growth and potential will eventually help it regain economic hegemony in the not too distant future.
Rating: 4
Summary: A New Frame in Which to View World History
Comment: I confess. I was Eurocentric. Despite a degree in International Economics from an east coast school known for its School of Foreign Service, I firmly believed Max Weber that the Protestant work-ethic was the source of western prosperity. I also believed in American exceptionalism. Frank's book cured me of both those false notions.
A couple points I'd like to add to Frank's thesis explained in other reviews.
1)I work for one of the major trans-Pacific ocean shipping companies. The company was founded in California in 1848 and sold to the Singapore government in 1997. (Shipping going East)
2)US-bound shipments are full of manufactured goods. Asia-bound ships are filled with wastepaper or are largely empty. The West continues to produce nothing that Asia really wants. Where in times past, most of the Asian-bound shipments from England and the Netherlands were boats filled with silver and gold, today we "ship silver" to Asia in the form of electronic fund transfers. Given the trade deficit the US alone has with China and the rest of Asia, it seems only a matter of time before the Chinese start buying Manhattan and US assets the way the Japanese did in the 1980s.
3)Frank's book adds an interesting background to the history of the Roman Empire. After subjugating Europe, Rome moved eastward under Constantine the Great. First, Constantinople provided a more defensible position for the New Rome (indeed where the western capital - Rome -- fell in the 5th century, the eastern capital - Constantinople -- continued until the 15th century, despite being "on the way" as it were for invading Huns and other invading armies). But perhaps more importantly, all the commercial action was centered in the East. Moving the capital eastward took it out of the backwater of Italy and moved it closer to the overland trade routes with the Asia).
4)That the East was far wealthier than the West can again be seen in microcosmic perspective during the 4th Crusade. Western soldiers had never imagined a city as wealthy as Constantinople. When they saw it they had to have it. The West, especially Venice, did to Constantinople in 1205 as the British did to Bengal in 1857 and the Americans have been doing to the Native Americans since they got here. They took by force, not by superior ethic, religion, tradition, or racial superiority.
The book itself, despite its "must read status" and historical importance, is very poorly written and highly repetitious. If you read the concluding few pages, you will have the main points of the argument. Read the rest of the book if you want the details. And Frank provides plenty of detail, footnotes, references, etc.
All in all, this book is important for understanding the world's past as well as the contours of the future. I wonder how long it will take for the pendulum to swing back to Asia. Chinese-US relations are getting interesting, aren't they?
Rating: 5
Summary: A fundamental book for the 21st century
Comment: Since Kondratieff (1970s) discovered economy was affected by up and down cycles that could be traced back across centuries, historians studied the structure of economy at different stages of World history, the succession of hegemonic states in the West, why a certain state became the hegemon and why others failed, etc... Apparently innocent, those questions concerned preservation of US supremacy, how to maintain and prolonge it, who were the possible challengers and when and where could a clash emerge.
The revolution brought by Franck is to destroy Eurocentric views adopted since 1800 bit by bit to reveal how the economic system has been working since the last 2000 years and especially the last 500 years. What it shows is that the global economy was centered around China until 1800 AD, that the main economic players of those 2 millennia were China, India and Japan assisted by Russia, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. The West was only minor and it is only because we achieved the conquest of the Americas and the exploitation of its silver deposits that we obtained a ticket in the global economy and gradually rose to proeminence. Britain was global hegemon from 1800 until 1914, displaced by the United States from then until present. Some forecasts predict that Chinese economy could outpace the US between 2013 and 2049.
Author detailed and argumented study is confirmed by current reality. 4 of the 5 largest foreign currency deposits are already in East Asia: Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong. While US current account balance is at -$393 billion and EU current account balance is at -$14 billion, Japan current account balance is at $128 billion, Russia is at $30 billion and China is at $17 billion. Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are all in positive waters. Most strategic technological monopolies are in Japan (Blindside from Eanmon Fingleton, 1995). 9 of the 10 largest harbours in the World are East Asian, leaving Rotterdam as the single exception. 70% of the World software production is in India. Most of the largest national GDP annual growth are in East, South-East and South Asia, making US robust growth of the last decade look pale and Europe's 2-3% definitly meaky.
The book is fundamental because it explains the basics of this Asian economic advantage, how post-1800 Westerners could delude themselves while their ancestors (Adam Smith being the most famous) dedicated pages of study to record and analyse why Asia was so superior to the West in almost everything and why the West has risen and is maybe falling beyond again (Only a blind could not notice that 1/3 of all US supermarket shelves are filled with Made in China or that the content of high-tech products is mostly Made in Japan, Taiwan or Korea and that Pokemon, Nintedno and Playstation are kids favorite).
An essential book for anyone to understand the global economy, to have an acurate look on current situation and evaluate the decisions made in the West to face Asian return to global power. A Chinese proverb says: There are no failures, only experiences. And another one: The 10.000 miles trip begins with one step. Make the first step of the next millennium and buy this book.
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Title: The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. by Kenneth Pomeranz ISBN: 0691090106 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 03 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350 by Janet L. Abu-Lughod ISBN: 0195067746 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: February, 1991 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Colonizer's Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History by J.M. Blaut ISBN: 0898623480 Publisher: Guilford Press Pub. Date: 29 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience by R. Bin Wong ISBN: 0801483271 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: 06 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor by David S. Landes ISBN: 0393318885 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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