The Shock of the Global - 9780674049048

The editors (three professors of history from Harvard U. and one from the U. of California at Berkeley) present 21 papers originating from a conference titled "The Global 1970s," which was devoted to examining political, economic, and cultural transformations around the world from a global perspective. The title of the volume was chosen to illustrate the idea that the 1970s was a time of both real and perceived crisis and upheaval, often connected to global developments and also presaging the "globalization" era to follow. Opening chapters offer portraits of economic transformation in the United States, China, and Eastern Europe, as well as discussions of international finance and political legitimacy in Latin America, the policy origins of the securitization of debt in the United States, and multinational enterprises and the politics of globalization. The next sections discuss international politics, focusing on such topics as global wars, Henry Kissinger and the geopolitics of globalization, nuclear arms politics, US relations with the developing world, human rights activism, smallpox eradication and the rise of global governance, and environmentalism and international society. Ideological, religious, and intellectual upheaval is the theme of the final section, which contains chapters on international feminism, developments in American Christianity and in Islam, and the role of rock music in transforming attitudes about sex and gender in the United States. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)