A review of the book 'From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives' written by Jeffrey E. Garten.
Globalization has often been understood as an impersonal and abstract phenomenon. Whether in everyday culture or matters of policy, this force has been experienced as something at once general and monolithic. From Silk to Silicon written by Jeffrey E. Garten is the first book to look at a history of globalization as told through the lens of ten extraordinary individuals. It tells who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it, and how their combined will and vision continue to shape our world today.
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Coming up: A review of the book 'From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives' written by Jeffrey E. Garten.
Namaste Friends. My name is 'Shinil Subramanian Payamal' and you are listening to the Historylogy podcast.
Before I proceed, a full disclosure: This book was bought with my own money and not been provided to me by the author or publisher.
Little bit about the author:
Jeffrey E. Garten teaches courses on the global economy at the Yale School of Management, where he was formerly the dean. He has held senior positions in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Clinton administrations, and was managing director of the Blackstone Group on Wall Street.
Let me read a brief description of the book from the inside flap of the book:
QUOTE
Globalization has often been understood as an impersonal and abstract phenomenon. Whether in everyday culture or matters of policy, this force has been experienced as something at once general and monolithic. From Silk to Silicon is the first book to look at a history of globalization as told through the lens of ten extraordinary individuals. It tells who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it, and how their combined will and vision continue to shape our world today.
Drawing together their various stories, Jeffrey E. Garten finds the common links between these figures. Placing the individual personality at the forefront of history, Garten explores some critical issues, including how much influence can any one person have in transforming our world. He argues that, in our increasingly globalized world, our progress and growth will come to be guided by many more such leaders and innovators. From Silk to Silicon presents a future full of human possibility.
UNQUOTE
Apparently, the story of globalization started about sixty thousand years ago, when some 150,000 people walked out of Africa in search of food and security. Over many millennia, these men, women, and children migrated to every part of the world. They intermarried. They traded. They spread and mixed their ideas, religions, and cultures. They fought wars and built empires that brought different populations under political roofs that sometimes spanned whole continents. They created cities that became melting pots of nationalities. They developed technologies and improved communications among themselves. They formulated laws, standards, and treaties governing their growing interdependencies. The story of globalization is no less than the story of human history.
In From Silk to Silicon, the author has selected nine men and one woman who met several criteria. First, they had to be transformational leaders. Put it this way: they had to virtually change the world. Many great leaders accomplish something with a big transaction of some kind—they win a big war, they negotiate a major treaty, they persuade a head of state to follow a new course. However, these are not necessarily transformational accomplishments. To achieve that status, leaders have to operate on a more exalted plane, as did the men and the woman the author has written about here. Transformational leaders do not exchange one thing for another, nor is their achievement the outcome of a bargain or negotiation, nor did they invent any one thing. Instead, they opened doors to a broad array of possibilities for progress. They changed the prevailing paradigm of how society was organized. They raised the hopes of broad swaths of civilization. They opened highways on which many others could travel.
The nine men and one woman covered by the author in this book are:
1. Genghis Khan ─ The twelfth century leader who conquered lands from the Pacific Rim to what is now eastern Europe, amassing the largest empire in human history.
2. Prince Henry of Portugal, who is known today as “Prince Henry, the Navigator” led the way in turning a nation of peasant farmers and coastal fisherman into an empire built on oceanic discovery and overseas settlements.
3. Robert Clive wasn’t solely responsible for building the East India Company or for conquering India. Many other people played vital roles in shaping the Company’s business strategies, building its ties to India and China, expanding and training its commercial and military workforce. What Clive did, above all else, was to create the space, set the direction, and stimulate the momentum that allowed the Company and British control of India to grow.
4. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who arose from an oppressive Jewish ghetto to establish the most powerful bank the world has seen, and ushered in an era of global finance.
5. Cyrus Field, who became the father of global communications by leading the effort to build the transatlantic telegraph, the forerunner to global radio, TV, and the worldwide Internet.
6. John D. Rockefeller, the titan who built the energy industry and also launched global philanthropy.
7. Jean Monnet who became the architect of new supranational institutions that would bring the ideal of a united Europe closer to fruition.
8. Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady whose controversial policies opened the gusher of substantially free markets that linked economies across borders.
9. Andy Grove, the man behind the Third Industrial revolution who was a Hungarian refugee from the Nazis who built the company—Intel—that figured out how to manufacture complex computer chips on a mass, commercial scale and laid the foundation for Silicon Valley’s computer revolution.
10. Deng Xiaoping who led China out of the wilderness. He rescued it from being an isolated, backward nation in a world moving quickly toward advanced technological modernization and unprecedented prosperity, and he gave it the opportunity to become a central and vibrant part of a globalized society.
Conclusion:
The accomplishments of the ten leaders mentioned above were made when the ground was shifting fundamentally under their feet, and they grasped opportunity amid periods of mind-boggling change. We, too, are living in such revolutionary times, as the challenges ahead amply illustrate.
This brilliantly written book is just over 350 pages and it is very easy to read and fast paced.
I give this book 4.5/5.
The hardcover format of this book is available for around Rs. 1600/- on Amazon India. And for $11.15 USD on Amazon USA. At the time of recording this review, the book is available in Kindle format but not in Audible format. I have given the respective buy links in the show notes. Please check them out for the latest prices.
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