Bibliographies

Scholarship of Globalization

Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002
From: "Cheryll Glotfelty" <glotfelt@unr.nevada.edu>

Dear ASLE list,

Thanks so much for the extremely helpful suggestions for background reading
on Globalization.  The list appears below in random order.  I thought your comments were also helpful, so I've retained them.  I now have more than enough overview/study titles.

NOW: Can we now create a list of international literary works (novels, memoir, drama, poetry, short fiction, etc.) that grapple with globalization? Please send me suggestions.

Again, I very much appreciate your help, and I will promise to post the
results.

Best wishes, Cheryll Glotfelty

Scholarship on Globalization

David Suzuki and Holly Dressel's new book Naked Ape to Superspecies has
a chapter on "globalisation: a new economy."

Anyone mentioned Harvey's Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference?

Giles Gunn's Beyond Solidarity: Pragmatism and Difference in a Globablized
World is forthcoming (Spring of this year).  Obviously, I haven't looked at it yet, but it'll probably be worth a look.

You could use Lester Brown's newly published Eco-Economy: Building an
Economy for the Earth which has the added advantage of being available for
free downloading at http://earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm.

There are also some interesting articles available for free download at
http://www.neweconomics.org/Default.asp?strRequest=pubs.

David Harvey has a recent article in a collection you might be interested in:
Harvey, David.  "What's Green and Makes the Environment Go Round?"  The
Cultures of Globalization.  Ed. Fredric Jameson and Masao Miyoshi.  Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1998.  327-55.

Arran Gare's Postmodernism and the Environmental Crisis, Routledge, 1995,
is also excellent.

Sharon Beder, Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism, Scribe, Melbourne 1997, is an excellent, if activist, view on globalization and the environment with case studies drawn from US, Australia and elsewhere.

Of possible interest:  the current issue of The American Prospect features a supplement on Globalization, "Globalism and the World's Poor."  More economics than environment per se but generally pertinent.  Two of the ten articles are by economics Nobel laureates, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.    Some related stories are also available on the website sponsored by the magazine,  www.epn.org

"The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization" sounds promising; the Autumn "Orion Afield" advertises and describes this book by Wayne Ellwood as a "pocket-sized Globalization 101," but "not an objectively dry textbook."  I'm hoping the mail brings my copy today, for use in a course sounding a good deal like yours.  Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith's "The Case Against the  Global Economy" sort of tips its hand in its title, but it is a collection of some mighty fine essays and is international in scope.  Helena Norberg-Hodge's "Ancient Futures" comes at globalization somewhat more indirectly, tracing her
perception of the deterioration of Ladakh's culture and agriculture into a monoculture with a Western tint.  Nearly anything Vandana Shiva writes has at Western corporations and their globalizing goals, but maybe "Stolen Harvest: the Hijacking of the Global Food Supply" is the most direct.

Sheerly on the basis of hearsay, two books that might be of interest are Empire by Antonio Negri and someone else whose name I forget, and a recent one by David Harvey whose title (I think) has "global" and "nature" in it. The former is, I hear, the leading theoretical book on globalization from a critical perspective; Harvey probably says more about nature. Either might be too technical or otherwise difficult for your students, I don't know.  I'll be quite interested in seeing your list of suggestions (and, perchance, a syllabus ...)

Harvey's three most recent are: Justice, Nature And The Geography Of Difference, 1996, Spaces Of Capital : Towards A Critical Geography, 2001, Spaces Of Hope, 2000

Two books I have found indispensable are:
French, Hilary F. Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.

Friedman, Thomas L. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. New York: Anchor Books, 2000.

SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORLD, by J.R. McNeill (published in 2000), a beautiful Norton paperback for only $16--less from the web. I've been using Barnes and Noble's site, where they have been offering free delivery for 2 or more books. The "something new" is the kind of damage from pollution. The book seems to touch upon just about everything.

"Jihad vs McWorld: How  Globalism and Tribalism are reshaping the World"
-Benjamin R Barber (Ballentine, 1996).  A good readable book mostly on globalism, woefully short on tribalism.  But the theme is the demise of the nation state as a reasonable compromise between the devil of tribal ethnic rivalries and the deep blue sea of global capitalist hegemony. It really demonstrates in a
clear way what globalism is and does.

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002
From: "Bob Mellin" <Mellin@purduenc.edu>

I recall that someone suggested that Jihad vs. McWorld be included in a course concerning globalization and neo-colonialism.  Some have argued that the thesis of the book is overly reductive--an argument, apparently, that Benjamin Barber has reacted to.  So, if Jihad vs. McWorld is used in class, it is probably important to read Barber's "Beyond Jihad vs. McWorld," which can be found in The Nation & is available at <http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020121&s=barber>