From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives

by Jeffrey E. Garten

Overview

The story of globalization, the most powerful force in history, as told through the life and times of ten people who changed the world by their singular, spectacular accomplishments.

This is the first book to look at the history of globalization through the lens of individuals who did something transformative, as opposed to describing globalization through trends, policies, or particular industries. From Silk to Silicon tells the story of who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it and how their achievements continue to shape our world today. They include:

• Genghis Khan, who united east and west by conquest and by opening new trade routes built on groundbreaking transportation, communications, and management innovations.

• 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.

• 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.

• Margaret Thatcher, whose controversial policies opened the gusher of substantially free markets that linked economies across borders.

• Andy Grove, 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.

Through these stories Jeffrey E. Garten finds the common links between these figure and probes critical questions including: How much influence can any one person have in fundamentally changing the world? And how have past trends in globalization affected the present and how will they shape the future? From Silk to Silicon is an essential book to understanding the past—and the future—of the most powerful force of our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062409980
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	1,103,341
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.08(d)

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 a managing director of Lehman Brothers and the Blackstone Group on Wall Street. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, BusinessWeek, and the Harvard Business Review, and he is the author of four previous books on global economics and politics.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction xxvii

Chapter I The Accidental Empire Builder (1162-1227) Genghis Khan 1

Chapter II The Explorer Who Made a Science of Discovery (1394-1460) Prince Henry 31

Chapter III The Rogue Who Captured India for the British Empire (1725-1774) Robert Clive 59

Chapter IV The Godfather of Global Banking (1744-1812) Mayer Amschel Rothschild 95

Chapter V The Tycoon Who Wired the Atlantic (1819-1892) Cyrus Field 125

Chapter VI The Titan Who Built the Energy Industry and also Launched Global Philanthropy (1839-1937) John D. Rockefeller 161

Chapter VII The Diplomat Who Reinvented Europe (1888-1979) Jean Monnet 195

Chapter VIII The Iron Lady Who Revived Free Markets (1925-2013) Margaret Thatcher 235

Chapter IX The Man behind the Third Industrial Revolution (1936-2016) Andrew Grove 273

Chapter X The Pragmatist Who Relaunched China (1904-1997) Deng Xiaoping 311

Chapter XI The Best is Yet to Come 345

Author's Note 361

Acknowledgments 365

Notes 367

Bibliography 391

Index 423

Editorial Reviews

Succinct, erudite and entertaining, From Silk to Silicon is a most original account of the genesis of globalization.” — Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, former President of Mexico and Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

“Garten compellingly recounts how ten individuals helped shape the modern world, reminding us of the possibilities begat by transformative leadership.” — Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, former U. S. Secretary of State

“This is a tale of globalization and leadership that is both sweeping and personal. By focusing on ten transformational people, it shows how individuals can affect the flow of history. It’s a guide to the future as well as to the past.” — Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin

“Jeffrey Garten has brilliantly updated Thomas Carlyle’s Great Man Theory of History in his gallery of transformative figures, notably including a woman, who have spurred globalization. A tour-de-force–imaginative, informative and just plain fun to read.” — STROBE TALBOTT, president of The Brookings Institution, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, and former editor-at-large, TIME Magazine

From the Publisher

Jeffrey Garten has brilliantly updated Thomas Carlyle’s Great Man Theory of History in his gallery of transformative figures, notably including a woman, who have spurred globalization. A tour-de-force–imaginative, informative and just plain fun to read.

STROBE TALBOTT

Succinct, erudite and entertaining, From Silk to Silicon is a most original account of the genesis of globalization.

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León

01/11/2016
In this wide-ranging book, Garten (The Politics of Fortune), former dean of the Yale School of Management, identifies 10 transformational individuals who laid the foundation for modern globalization. He begins with Genghis Khan, who conquered and united the vast Mongol Empire, and moves chronologically as he profiles Prince Henry of Portugal, whose fearless naval expeditions set in motion the Age of Exploration; Robert Clive, the merchant-soldier who laid the basis for the British Empire; Mayer Amschel Rothschild, whose dealings represented the beginnings of global financial markets; Cyrus Field, layer of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, which set the stage for modern telecommunications; John D. Rockefeller, the businessman whose companies anticipated today’s multinational corporations; Jean Monnet, who coordinated the establishment of the European Union; Margaret Thatcher, the free-market evangelist who linked Britain’s economy with the world’s; Andrew Grove, the manager who made Intel a leader in the microprocessor industry; and Deng Xiaoping, the modernizing Chinese leader whose market reforms brought hundreds of millions of people into the global economy. Garten recognizes each figure’s unique skills and qualities as well as their evils. It’s an unapologetically neoliberal take on history, but Garten is correct that each contribution reverberates in the present. Maps and illus. Agent: James Levine, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Succinct, erudite and entertaining, From Silk to Silicon is a most original account of the genesis of globalization.

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León

This is a tale of globalization and leadership that is both sweeping and personal. By focusing on ten transformational people, it shows how individuals can affect the flow of history. It’s a guide to the future as well as to the past.

Walter Isaacson

Garten compellingly recounts how ten individuals helped shape the modern world, reminding us of the possibilities begat by transformative leadership.

Dr. Henry A. Kissinger

02/01/2016
In his latest work, Garten (The Politics of Fortune) takes a unique approach to the thematic study of globalization as an economic, political, and social force. Rather than tracing the product of a garment or the development of a particular industry or nation, the author looks at the overarching themes of the theory of globalization and then uses biographies of principle figures to illustrate each stage. Whether it is Mayer Rothschild embodying the finance trade or Jean Monnet establishing the European Union and paving the way for the creation of a shared currency, each personality fits neatly into Garten's tenets of globalization, which are key factors drawn from his substantial knowledge of global interdependence. Engaging vignettes demonstrate a unique sociopolitical norm while making connections to the larger trends of globalization without losing their relevancy to the narrative as a whole. In sum, the stories serve to highlight the message that it isn't the innovation or the dream that's necessary for global achievement but rather confidence, pragmatism, and the ability to persist that leads to revolutionary and paradigm-shifting individuals. VERDICT This highly approachable book, clearly written and intriguing in concept, will be valuable in telling the story of globalization as the relationships between person and theme are well drawn and illuminating.—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

Library Journal

2016-01-20
Yale economic historian Garten (The Big Ten: The Big Emerging Markets and How They Will Change Our Lives, 1997, etc.) looks at 10 pioneers of the new global economy, from Genghis Khan to Deng Xiaoping. Both Genghis and Deng were inarguably of great importance in opening up the worlds they knew to global, or at least continental, trade. Perhaps more important than Genghis was his descendant Kublai Khan, who built an actual rational economy and the bureaucratic structure to administer it, achievements that, writes Garten, "occurred well after Genghis Khan, but…evolved from his earlier attempts at establishing a multicultural society spanning vast territory." Robert Clive, aka Clive of India, on the other hand, simply found a multicultural society spanning a huge territory and appropriated it for the British crown—one way to open up markets, to be sure, but perhaps not the best model for latter-day capitalists to follow. Without Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese royal who spent money on science and education, Garten writes, the great Age of Exploration would have probably occurred anyway, "but it was Henry who seized the moment." This rather offhand defense points to the central problem of the book: it lacks much explanatory power. The 10 individuals highlighted here, though their contributions were of importance to varying degrees, might just as easily have been replaced by any other 10 leading individuals—e.g., Genghis for Kublai, Andrew Grove for Steve Jobs, and so forth. That objection noted, Garten does well to highlight the different strains of enterprise that have gone into making a global economy, from military intervention to exploration and the innovation of financial and technological systems. He also makes the smart, though arguable, assertion that "globalization has given individuals powerful new avenues to make an impact." Of interest to students of economic history, though less intellectually compelling than David Warsh's Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations (2006) or even Robert Allen's Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction (2011).

Kirkus Reviews