Collapse of Globalism: And the Rebirth of Nationalism »

Grand economic theories rarely last more than a few decades and globalization, with its technocratic and technological determinism, and its market idolatry, may have seen its best days. Perhaps it is already a spent force, argues John Ralston Saul—the prize-winning author of The Unconscious Civilization, Voltaire's Bastards, and On Equilibrium, among others—in this groundbreaking new book.

The Collapse of Globalism follows globalization from its promising beginnings in the 1970s through to the increasing deregulation in industry, and into the 1990s, when regional economic collapses and concern for the environment and for the rights of workers led to widespread protest and disillusionment. In the wake of globalism's collapse, nationalism of the best and worst sort, Saul demonstrates, shows signs of making a remarkable, unexpected recovery.

The Washington Post - David Ignatius

It's a series of meandering rants gathered around one central rant about globalization. Saul, the author of Voltaire's Bastards, argues that the very soul of the U.S.-driven global economy—free trade—is itself of dubious benefit because it spins goods around the world without creating real wealth. Certainly that case can be made, as it has been eloquently by William Greider in One World, Ready or Not. But it's not made well in Saul's book, which pops off in so many directions that a reader loses track sometimes of just what he's denouncing.