Globalization is in retreat, but history tells us that this is but a temporary reversal. Globalization will return, but in what form? More cycles of boom and bust? Or can globalization be rebuilt on a more feasible and sustainable platform? These are the compelling questions that Michael Veseth tackles in this thoroughly revised and updated edition of his award-winning book.

Veseth shows how pre-crash visions of globalization were based on three powerful myths: that global finance was a stable foundation for a global economy, that global markets homogenized and Americanized the world, and that globalization itself was irresistible-impossible to shape or oppose at any level from the grassroots on up. The world economic crisis has revealed globalization's Achilles heel: the fundamental instability of global financial markets and the unsettled foundation of economic globalization generally. This realization is a necessary first step, but it alone is not enough. We must rethink the rest of globalization's myths, Veseth persuasively argues, if we want to move beyond boom and bust to a sustainable global future.

New to This Edition:

-Analyzes the world financial crisis and its impact on globalization

-Stresses how the reality of financial globalization differed from its rhetoric and how this disconnect contributed to the ultimate financial meltdown

-Explains why the next wave of globalization will be different from the last one—and what will be needed to make it a feasible and sustainable future.

Special Features:

-Exposes the way that the rhetoric of globalization creates powerful myths-globaloney-that shape how business, voters, and policymakers act and react

-Shows how three globalization myths contributed to the world economic crisis and explains how a more realistic vision of globalization could help create a sustainable global future

-Uses real-world case studies to undermine the popular belief that globalization is homogenization and Americanization, revealing the more complex and diverse effects of globalization

-Explodes the myth that grassroots groups cannot shape or oppose globalization as we learn how some organizations have found ways to turn globalization against itself

-Argues that inherently unstable global finance is the basis for globalization as we know it today, making globalization itself more fragile than is generally appreciated

-Shows that if we understand globalization not as monolithic but as fragile, diverse, and many-centered, we can begin to rebuild it as a feasible, sustainable human enterprise