World on Fire: How Exporting Free-Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred & Global Instability - Softcover

Chua, Amy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0434012203 ISBN 13: 9780434012206

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2003

Synopsis

'After the fall of the Berlin wall, a consensus emerged that the magical combination of free markets and democracy would transform the world into a community of modernized, peace-loving nations, and individuals into civic-minded citizens and consumers. Ethnic hatred, religious zealotry, and other "backward" aspects of underdevelopment would be swept away.'In World on Fire, Amy Chua shows that just the opposite has happened. As global markets open, ethnic conflict worsens and democracy in developing nations turns ugly and violent. Examining the actual impact of economic globalisation across the world, Chua shows how free markets have concentrated disproportionate, often spectacular wealth in the hands of resented ethnic minorities. These 'market-dominant minorities' - from Chinese in Southeast Asia to Jews in post-Communist Russia, to, on a global scale, the US itself - invariably become targets of resentment and violence. Chua is not an anti-globalist. But she warns that, far from making the world a better place, democracy and capitalism - at least in the raw form in which they are currently being exported - are intensifying ethnic resentment and global violence, with potentially catastrophic results.

About this title

Review:

"There is a plethora of books about globalisation, many saying roughly the same thing. This one is different ... This book is a gem ... Her theme is different, rich and compelling ... A pleasure to read" (Guardian)

"Very, very readable; very powerful - this is a very illuminating book" (Clare Short A Good Read)

"The greatest tribute to any book is the conviction upon closing it that the senseless finally makes sense. That's the feeling left by Amy Chua's World on Fire ... provocative, evocative, nuanced and highly readable, starting at page one" (Washington Post)

"Ambitiously conceived, impressively researched and gracefully written, Amanda Foreman has crafted a narrative rich in detail, anecdote, insight and personalities. It puts a human face - many human faces - on a brutal conflict remorselessly descending into an inhuman total war" (Brian Jenkins)

"A tour de force, a work of extreme virtuosity both in the research and the telling" (Bloomberg News)

From the Publisher:

The New York Times bestseller. In the current affairs/globalisation tradition of Naomi Klein and Noreena Hertz; the most original contribution to the globalisation debate in years.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0434012203
• ISBN 13: 9780434012206
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368