A rich, revealing history of the economic and political events that have shaped our time.

International trade at unprecedented levels, millions of people migrating yearly in search of jobs, the world's economies more open to one another than ever before....Such was the global economy in 1900. Then as now, many people considered globalization to be inevitable and irreversible. Yet the entire edifice collapsed in a few months in 1914.

Globalization is a choice, not a fact. It is a result of policy decisions and the politics that shape them. Jeffry A. Frieden's insightful history explores the golden age of globalization during the early years of the twentieth century, its swift collapse in the crises of 1914-45, the divisions of the Cold War world, and the turn again toward global integration at the end of the century. His history is full of character and event, as entertaining as it is enlightening. It deepens our understanding of the century just past and sheds light on our current situation.