Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas
From the acclaimed author of The Box, a new history of globalization that shows us how to navigate its future

Globalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also
one of the most contentious issues of our time. While it may have made goods less expensive, it has also sent massive
flows of money across borders and shaken the global balance of power. Outside the Box offers a fresh and lively history
of globalization, showing how it has evolved over two centuries in response to changes in demography, technology, and
consumer tastes.

Marc Levinson, the acclaimed author of The Box, tells the story of globalization through the people who eliminated
barriers and pursued new ways of doing business. He shows how the nature of globalization changed dramatically in the
1980s with the creation of long-distance value chains. This new type of economic relationship shifted manufacturing
to Asia, destroying millions of jobs and devastating industrial centers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Levinson
describes how improvements in transportation, communications, and computing made international value chains
possible, but how globalization was taken too far because of large government subsidies and the systematic misjudgment
of risk by businesses. As companies began to account properly for the risks of globalization, cross-border investment fell
sharply and foreign trade lagged long before Donald Trump became president and the coronavirus disrupted business
around the world.

In Outside the Box, Levinson explains that globalization is entering a new era in which moving stuff will matter
much less than moving services, information, and ideas
1136580251
Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas
From the acclaimed author of The Box, a new history of globalization that shows us how to navigate its future

Globalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also
one of the most contentious issues of our time. While it may have made goods less expensive, it has also sent massive
flows of money across borders and shaken the global balance of power. Outside the Box offers a fresh and lively history
of globalization, showing how it has evolved over two centuries in response to changes in demography, technology, and
consumer tastes.

Marc Levinson, the acclaimed author of The Box, tells the story of globalization through the people who eliminated
barriers and pursued new ways of doing business. He shows how the nature of globalization changed dramatically in the
1980s with the creation of long-distance value chains. This new type of economic relationship shifted manufacturing
to Asia, destroying millions of jobs and devastating industrial centers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Levinson
describes how improvements in transportation, communications, and computing made international value chains
possible, but how globalization was taken too far because of large government subsidies and the systematic misjudgment
of risk by businesses. As companies began to account properly for the risks of globalization, cross-border investment fell
sharply and foreign trade lagged long before Donald Trump became president and the coronavirus disrupted business
around the world.

In Outside the Box, Levinson explains that globalization is entering a new era in which moving stuff will matter
much less than moving services, information, and ideas
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Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas

Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas

by Marc Levinson

Narrated by L.J. Ganser

Unabridged — 9 hours, 8 minutes

Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas

Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas

by Marc Levinson

Narrated by L.J. Ganser

Unabridged — 9 hours, 8 minutes

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Overview

From the acclaimed author of The Box, a new history of globalization that shows us how to navigate its future

Globalization has profoundly shaped the world we live in, yet its rise was neither inevitable nor planned. It is also
one of the most contentious issues of our time. While it may have made goods less expensive, it has also sent massive
flows of money across borders and shaken the global balance of power. Outside the Box offers a fresh and lively history
of globalization, showing how it has evolved over two centuries in response to changes in demography, technology, and
consumer tastes.

Marc Levinson, the acclaimed author of The Box, tells the story of globalization through the people who eliminated
barriers and pursued new ways of doing business. He shows how the nature of globalization changed dramatically in the
1980s with the creation of long-distance value chains. This new type of economic relationship shifted manufacturing
to Asia, destroying millions of jobs and devastating industrial centers in North America, Europe, and Japan. Levinson
describes how improvements in transportation, communications, and computing made international value chains
possible, but how globalization was taken too far because of large government subsidies and the systematic misjudgment
of risk by businesses. As companies began to account properly for the risks of globalization, cross-border investment fell
sharply and foreign trade lagged long before Donald Trump became president and the coronavirus disrupted business
around the world.

In Outside the Box, Levinson explains that globalization is entering a new era in which moving stuff will matter
much less than moving services, information, and ideas

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Winner of the Gold Medal in International Business / Globalization, Axiom Business Book Awards

"[The] exploration of trade’s future is particularly thought-provoking. . . . One lesson of Mr. Levinson’s absorbing, centuries-long survey is that evolving global systems are always vulnerable to unexpected events."—-Matthew Rees, Wall Street Journal

"Smart and exceptionally well-timed."—-Justin Fox, Bloomberg

"Ostensibly a history of international trade through three distinct ‘globalizations,’ Outside the Box is most useful as a chronicle of how the pre-2008 model of complex, globe-spanning, just-in-time manufacturing has been exposed as fragile, inefficient, and opaque."—-Mike Jakeman, strategy+business

"Outside the Box is an intriguing synergy of social-sciences analysis, a useful aide memoire, a captivating read. Marc Levinson synthesizes well and writes smoothly, with a light touch of irony—very smart non-fiction."—-Linda Quest, International Social Science Review

"Marc Levinson’s Outside the Box is a timely and fascinating discussion of globalization."—-Andreas Grein, Journal of Economic Literature

"A valuable and stimulating contribution to the literature which can be profitably (and enjoyably) read by economist and non-economist alike."—-Ian Harwood, Society of Professional Economists

"Levinson provides a captivating account of globalisation by interlinking historical events that we know a great deal about with more obscure ones. Globalisation is not over – just different. I, for one, am glad it is ongoing as it will allow Levinson to produce a follow-up book."—-Alex Gray, Financial World

"This book is an interesting addition to the reading list of professionals and policymakers, which will help them think outside the box to integrate globalization and resilience for a sustainable global supply chain that is essential during this uncertain and challenging times. Nevertheless, this book can also serve as an idea-generating platform for academic readers in the field of globalization and international trade."—-Satya Sahoo, Journal of Maritime Affairs

Kirkus Reviews

2020-06-09
One-time Economist editor Levinson outlines a new phase in the history of globalization.

The author’s history of the standardized shipping container, The Box, spoke to an instrument of global trade that enabled a key chapter in economic history: the ability to transport raw materials to faraway manufacturing centers and ship finished goods to commercial centers around the globe. That “Third Globalization,” as Levinson calls it, does much to render national borders immaterial, at least in some respects: “When a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of industrial abrasives with plants in twenty-seven countries could be owned by a Paris-based corporation that counted Dutch pension funds, British investment trusts, and Middle Eastern governments among its major shareholders, who was to say whether the resulting entity was ‘French,’ ‘American,’ or just ‘international’?” Borders may have been erased, but discontent is high in countries from which manufacturing jobs fled—foremost among them the U.S. Globalization writ large has been a good thing, Levinson argues, for people around the world, lifting huge populations out of poverty. But it has also fueled inequality, and far-flung supply chains are risky propositions. Moreover, resentments among industrial workers in the wealthy nations of the West have since led to a resurgence of nationalism, accompanied by the recent rise of authoritarian leaders around the world. The new, fourth phase of globalization is in some ways a response to tightened borders, tariffs, and economic retrenchment. Now it hinges on intellectual capital, and economic activity can zip around the globe in seconds without crossing physical borders. Many commercial goods can be downloaded (movies) or 3-D-printed while “technology is making it easier to manufacture on a smaller scale” for a bespoke audience. Levinson deals lucidly with thorny matters of fiscal and trade policy, and though his book presupposes an interest in such things, it requires no background in economics to follow it.

A rational, welcome exploration of an international trade that is now at a crossroads, becoming less global than regional.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940175986069
Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date: 09/15/2020
Edition description: Unabridged
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