The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times

Customer Reviews:

A cemetery of accumulations? Capitalism is a means, not an end.......2006-11-11

G. Arrighi's Twentieth Century is very long indeed. It begins in the fourteenth century.
The author wants to lay bare Braudel's third layer of economic power (the real home of the predators), which covers the self-sufficient economy (the 1st) and the market economy (the 2nd). The predators are those particular communities or governmental and business blocs who accumulate on a world scale an ever-increasing capitalist power.

The author sees 4 historical centers of global accumulation: 1. the Italian city States (Venice, Genoa); 2. the Seventeen Provinces (Holland); 3. Great-Britain; 4. US; 5. ?
Each of these global accumulations is characterized by three capitalist cycles: 1. financial expansion; 2. consolidation and accumulation; 3. renewed financial expansion and emergence of competition.

His analysis is profound and detailed. However, the author doesn't take enough crucial demographic and political factors or decisions into consideration.
There is a phenomenal difference between the first two and the third and fourth accumulation. The 3rd one caused a demographic explosion which is still going on. Its success for the human species is truly exceptional (E. Hobsbawm).
The fall of the British empire was at least accelerated by two world wars which were declared by foreign countries and which left Great-Britain bankrupt (Keynes, Skidelsky).
The basic of the US empire is the dollar (W.G. Tarpley). The fall of the dollar in 1971 was countered by a political decision to inflate the oil prize (W. Engdahl), whereby the dollar recaptured its lost central place in international finance and US banks and oil corporations were catapulted at the zenith of world power (the real predators).

This book is already partly out-of-date. It ends with the Japanese formidable but already extinct expansion, not with the lurking Chinese one (a truly perfect combination of State and capital).
Do we see actually the final capitalist crisis, so many times claimed by pure Marxists? Absolutely not. Engel (not Engels)'s law is still highly in force with a nearly unlimited supply of cheap labor at the disposal of all transnational corporations.
Adam Smith's (and Marx's) law of the tendency of a falling rate of profit is an illusion, because in the long run capital chases earnings.
Finally, in our society, capitalism is not an end but a means to grab power and power means survival. Through history, the members of the ruling class live much longer than the ruled.

This book is a very worth-while read, although its analysis and vocabulary is nearly pure Marxist.

Arrighi Makes Sense of History.......2005-09-16

Giovanni Arrighi's "Long 20th Century" is a must-read for those who want to understand the global history and dynamics of power and capitalism, and especially the likelihood that in the next couple of decades, the U.S. will continue its current trend, and finally undergo a decisive loss of economic hegemony and power, quite likely to be replaced by China and other Asian economies. Whether such a shift will be accepted by the U.S. and its allies without a cataclysmic resort to military violence is very much in doubt--Arrighi demonstrates that the 3 major similar shifts in the past have been concomitant (both as cause and effect) with continental or global wars.

Arrighi's is a bird's-eye view of history from the 14th century onward, focusing on the repeated, cyclic tendency of leading capitalist groups/states/empires (hegemons) to be superceded by larger and more organized such groups. This has been due, roughly, to increasing nation/state competition for surplus capital that is largely not re-invested in trade and production by the existing hegemon. Such "finance" capital is sought most successfully by the hegemon that will overtake the existing one, but the competition in general has inevitably led to war, after which the superceding hegemon emerges as best positioned to lead the building of a larger world-capitalist system of trade and production.

Eventually, though, the cyclic process begins anew, though Arrighi doesn't claim that the "cycles" are closed loops--the means by which these new hegemons succeed involve technological, political, military, and organizational innnovations. Thus, Arrighi is a small-m marxist, retaining the best of, and building upon, but not limiting himself to, Marx's analysis, particularly regarding the tendency of capitalist re-investment of growing profits in production to eventually depress said profit-rates, as competition for limited markets drives them down. This has happened most significantly to 4 major hegemons: Genoese Italy's 14th century dispersed capitalist merchants, the Dutch nation/state, the British Empire, and finally the U.S. Any notion that U.S. power has ended such cyclic processes, and will "dominate" the world forever, is undermined by his argument--which only goes to 1994, yet is uncannily predictive (in general) of the effects of current events.

The brief summary above does not do justice to the book, which is fascinating in every detail, and truly comprehensive in its consideration of the history of world power and politics. The level of writing is high, but not incredibly dense--it does require close reading, but most educated and interested lay readers should find it amenable. It also has a great bibliography of similarly fascinating reading on related topics. Finally, Arrighi has many articles available online, of which several that I have read are just as cogent and valuable, including a couple recent ones in New Left Review that update his arguments from Long 20th Century to 2004.

Contours of the 21st Century.......2004-12-08

Giovanni Arrighi's text is the most under-rated as well as the most brilliant of all theoretical works on historical capitalism and its futures. Unlike the claims of recent scholars like Hardt and Negri, the text is NOT about one historical cycle succeeding another. Such a claim is one of the worst examples of intellectual misrepresentation that I have ever come across. Their own work ('Empire' and then 'Multitude') are vain and failed attempts to come to terms with Arrighi's work. As a student of Marx, Braudel, and Schumpeter, Arrighi knows better than most that no two systemic cycles are ever the same. Each one not only ruptures the world system, it also creates conditions for its own supersession, in what Arrighi, drawing upon Braudel, calls 'financial expansions', and what David Harvey following Arrighi, calls 'accumulation by dispossession'. By drawing insightful comparisons between four long systemic cycles starting with the medieval Genoese financial expansion, Arrighi demonstrates the novelty of the cycle underlying the long twentieth century as well as pointing to what lies ahead. This is an absolute must read for anyone interested in capitalism, the interstate system, the social movements (though here the text is somewhat deficient), and the possibility of a future different from the lackluster present. Arrighi's work is simultaneously historical and theoretical (theory after all comes from a deep grasp of historical currents). Although much misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misrepresented, and often appropriated without adequate acknowledgement, The Long Twentieth Century is destined to become the classic work of the 21st century. Ten years after it first came out, almost all of Arrighi's predictions are turning out to be accurate, so much so that his school of imitators is becoming as vast as his train of never-ending admirers. To those who like large meta-narratives that combine spatial dynamics with temporal rhythms - and there are only a few out there (Marx, Weber, Braudel, Schumpeter, Perry Anderson, Michael Mann, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Charles Tilly)- Arrighi's work will be the unsurpassable horizon of our times. Arrighi is a master-synthesizer. One of the challenges he raises is the question of synthesis itself. What is entailed in the act of synthesizing without distorting particulars, is the capacity to give each particular its due (as if that were ever possible!). Arrighi's deep compassion for the struggles to bring about a different global future guide much of his architecture. Unlike many who call themselves socialists, Arrighi carries none of their presumptuous and often ridiculous baggage. To read this text is like experiencing a breath of fresh air after so many sterile polemics on the Left. It is a tall order to go beyond the Long twentieth century. Future attempts will invariably find themselves repeating an insight already developed in some obscure page of the Long Twentieth Century. It is the challenge of the 21st to come up with something at least as good as the offering of the Calabrian maestro.

Fascinating, challenging, erudite........2003-07-23

I consider myself fairly well educated: I have a Ph.D. and I've thrived on books in this genre, such as _Europe and the People Without History_ and _The Colonizer's Model of the World_. But I find Arrighi's book a difficult one--a little beyond most readers, I should think.

There are three main reasons for this: a.) Arrighi fails to write for a larger audience and b.) fails to write as clearly as he could; and c.) Arrighi is assuming fluency in Braudel, Wallerstein, Abu-Lughod, and a host of other scholars who have tackled the rise of capitalist empires.

I think most Americans, who have a mediocre background in Marxist theory, world systems theory, class dynamics, and hegemony, might want to pass. Does the name Gramsci ring a bell? How about the basic premises of Lenin? Which way did you nod your head when I mentioned Abu-Lughod? If these notions aren't a part of your working knowledge, take a pass on this book. Try one of the two books I mentioned at the top. And if you *are* well-versed in Braudel, macro-economic theory, and critical discussions of imperialism, you might venture to read this difficult work. Arrighi has put together an ambitious, provocative work, a serious investigation into the power-economies of empires.

A must read.......2001-03-20

If you are a student of the international system or international relations this is a must read. It should be considered the second part in a five volume set. The first should be something about world systems theory by Wallerstein, a reader will do, then Fernand Braudel's Perspective of the World, followed by Hopkins and Wallertein's Age of Transition. For the final book I recommend Robert Gilpin's response to these works, The Challenge of Global Capitalism published in 2000.

The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times

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The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times
Giovanni Arrighi
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LZMP2A

Book Description

“No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” —H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken was wrong.

In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence, military history and political theory to show just how this principle operates in the real world.

Despite the sophistication of his arguments, Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner. The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising, and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which you’re standing always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a screw anywhere in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten-thousand miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had to meet someone in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic jams? What’s the best way to win money on a game show? Why, when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations exist?

The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant but accessible biography of an idea, one with important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct our business, and think about our world.

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The Wisdom of Crowds

I

If, years hence, people remember anything about the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, they will probably remember the contestants' panicked phone calls to friends and relatives. Or they may have a faint memory of that short-lived moment when Regis Philbin became a fashion icon for his willingness to wear a dark blue tie with a dark blue shirt. What people probably won't remember is that every week Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? pitted group intelligence against individual intelligence, and that every week, group intelligence won.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was a simple show in terms of structure: a contestant was asked multiple-choice questions, which got successively more difficult, and if she answered fifteen questions in a row correctly, she walked away with $1 million. The show's gimmick was that if a contestant got stumped by a question, she could pursue three avenues of assistance. First, she could have two of the four multiple-choice answers removed (so she'd have at least a fifty-fifty shot at the right response). Second, she could place a call to a friend or relative, a person whom, before the show, she had singled out as one of the smartest people she knew, and ask him or her for the answer. And third, she could poll the studio audience, which would immediately cast its votes by computer. Everything we think we know about intelligence suggests that the smart individual would offer the most help. And, in fact, the "experts" did okay, offering the right answer--under pressure--almost 65 percent of the time. But they paled in comparison to the audiences. Those random crowds of people with nothing better to do on a weekday afternoon than sit in a TV studio picked the right answer 91 percent of the time.

Now, the results of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? would never stand up to scientific scrutiny. We don't know how smart the experts were, so we don't know how impressive outperforming them was. And since the experts and the audiences didn't always answer the same questions, it's possible, though not likely, that the audiences were asked easier questions. Even so, it's hard to resist the thought that the success of the Millionaire audience was a modern example of the same phenomenon that Francis Galton caught a glimpse of a century ago.

As it happens, the possibilities of group intelligence, at least when it came to judging questions of fact, were demonstrated by a host of experiments conducted by American sociologists and psychologists between 1920 and the mid-1950s, the heyday of research into group dynamics. Although in general, as we'll see, the bigger the crowd the better, the groups in most of these early

experiments--which for some reason remained relatively unknown outside of academia--were relatively small. Yet they nonetheless performed very well. The Columbia sociologist Hazel Knight kicked things off with a series of studies in the early 1920s, the first of which had the virtue of simplicity. In that study Knight asked the students in her class to estimate the room's temperature, and then took a simple average of the estimates. The group guessed 72.4 degrees, while the actual temperature was 72 degrees. This was not, to be sure, the most auspicious beginning, since classroom temperatures are so stable that it's hard to imagine a class's estimate being too far off base. But in the years that followed, far more convincing evidence emerged, as students and soldiers across America were subjected to a barrage of puzzles, intelligence tests, and word games. The sociologist Kate H. Gordon asked two hundred students to rank items by weight, and found that the group's "estimate" was 94 percent accurate, which was better than all but five of the individual guesses. In another experiment students were asked to look at ten piles of buckshot--each a slightly different size than the

Customer Reviews:

Smart, Interesting and Easy to Read.......2007-09-21

This book was a surprise hit for me. I didn't expect to like it, but ended up loving it so much I just had to have a copy on my shelf. Surowieki is very convincing, in part because he takes such care to bring up alternative arguments and respond to each. He also keeps his focus fairly narrow, so the arguments aren't all over the place. I was especially fascinated by his discussion of experts. We rely on them so heavily these days, but now I know to question their expertise. This book has changed the way that I make decisions and the way I evaluate good decision-making in my elected representatives. I recommend this book to anyone interested in making good decisions. It is a smoothly-written book and you won't have any trouble following the arguments or staying 'into' it.

Don't expect a textbook.......2007-09-19

I really like the Wisdom of Crowds because Surowiecki succeeds in explaining complicated and sophisticated ideas in ways that educated people can not only grasp but also incorporate into their own thinking. This is quite an achievement, one that critics of the book have overlooked. This topic has not been open until now to such a wide audience.

Surowiecki never shies from even difficult and abstract statistical concepts. He draws liberally upon academic journals and scholarly books, writing in a style that is at once journalistic and educated.

Yet, Surowiecki never talks down to his reader. Instead he invites the reader to accompany him through an arcane (and dimly lit) maze of statistical practice as it has been developed and utilized for decades by social scientists and economists. The reader is rewarded again and again because Surowiecki points to a partially hidden jewel, holds it up for examination, hands it to the reader and then leaves it in plain sight (often for reference later in the book).

Thus, this book is a remarkable example, a model, for readers (and writers) who wish to bridge the gaps between educated professionals.

My criticism is along different lines. In this extremely visual era, the editors could have widened the audience for the Wisdom of Crowds much further if suitable images could have been commissioned to throw additional light on Surowiecki's prose. But, paper and ink are so much more expensive than artists these days, one can understand the limitations and constraints Doubleday (Random House) were under. On the other hand, why not put up a web site?

Crowds Oh Wisdom.......2007-09-19

Good book and I thought the pace moved along extremely well. There are some significant things in the book that are a bit dated, but overall this is a very interesting book. I also recommend "Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing" by Lois Kelly published 2007 to couple with this book. Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Food for thought.......2007-08-21

I found this book full of sweeping claims, generalizations and is confusing in its presentation. However it made me think. Overall the writer is saying that people independently working on a problem can in a fair vote be more accurate then the smartest individual. He then quotes examples for such behaviour and examples of when the crowds got it wrong when they acted not independently but in mass. I suspect that much of his arguments are sound.

How much I am not sure for example if I asked the average person independently if they believe there was much truth in astrology, I am sure that over 50% would say yes.

However since the book is making much comments, I hope to see some better studies coming forward.

Having said all this it has changed my views on decision making and how to do it.

Surowiecki is a gifted teacher.......2007-08-08

At first I was afraid that "The wisdom of crowds" was going to be a 250 page restatement of the law of large numbers for dummies. In the beginning it looks that way, because Surowiecki takes a lot of time to explain that the more people trying to guess the solution to a problem, each adding their own bit of information, the more accurate the average guess. Not very revolutionary at all (although possibly counterintuitive at first). But as the book moved on I got more and drawn in and impressed by the presentation, which is rigorous and supremely readable at the same time.
The book describes how crowds can solve problems of cognition, coordination and cooperation. It gives the conditions under which crowds are good and not good at doing so. The author illustrates with a myriad of interesting problems and case studies, some rather obvious choices (why do investment bubbles emerge?, why do political stock markets predict so well?), others more arcane (why did the gangsters in reservoir dogs fail?, why is it often easy to cut a line?). What binds these studies together is the way groups handle information and the good and bad institution designed to make them do so.
Throughout all the diversity, it is the great scholarship of Surowiecki that makes everything naturally fall into place. Being familiar with a lot of the material in academic form, I know how conceptually daring some of it is, but Surowiecki effortlessly reduces it to bite-size portions, without compromising much or exaggerating anywhere. Great reading!

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few

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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few
James Surowiecki
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B0002P0EVI

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations.(Audiobook review): An article from: Business Economics

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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations.(Audiobook review): An article from: Business Economics
Edmund A. Mennis
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000MQ5DMC
Release Date: 2007-01-17

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Business Economics, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2006. The length of the article is 635 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations.(Audiobook review)
Author: Edmund A. Mennis
Publication: Business Economics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41 Issue: 4 Page: 63(2)

Article Type: Audiobook review

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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations (Random House Large Print)

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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations (Random House Large Print)
James Surowiecki
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OXNKIM

Book Description

A book of national and international importance, Fruit Fly Pests is an exhaustive compendium of information (with data provided by more than 100 contributors) that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. With huge losses experienced annually from fruit fly devastation, information on these high-profile insects is important to commercial fruit and vegetable growers, marketing exporters, government regulatory agencies, and the scientific community. Fruit flies impose a considerable resource tax, and the ones who suffer range from shippers to end users. The demand for world-wide plant protection requires up-to-date research information. This book meets that need. This book contains the proceedings from the most recent International Symposium on Fruit Flies of Economic Importance. Here you will find the major presentations given at the symposium, with an added feature - overviews from experts on topics not covered directly by participants in the symposium, filling in gaps in the current literature. The resulting publication is the most up-to-date and readable text to be found anywhere on the subject of tephritids.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointment.......2006-07-03

I read everything i can to better understand the human psyche. This one was a superficial stretch.

Good, But Incomplete.......2005-05-01

I like Johnson's books--they are good vehicles for the lay person to navigate the complexities of archetypal psychology. This book presents a psycholotgical/cultural interpretation of the Dionysus muths in a simple, direct, and usually-insightful manner.

The author sometimes uses too-broad strokes, trotting out wild generalizations about cultural phenomena that seem a little too superficial, a little too pat to be wholly convincing.

Also, if you are looking for a *practical* book, this probably isn't it. The chapter on using the Dionysus myth in your own life is woefully thin, which the author admits right off the bat. In fact, he refers you to his earlier book, Inner Works, for a more detailed, specific method of practical applications. That said, Johnson's thin volumes (this one is about 90 pages), really need to be read and used in conjunction with that book.

Ecstasy.......2001-11-22

An Essential guide to understanding why our culture is constantly obssessed with seeking fulfillment that we never achieve.Robert A. Johnson makes us aware of why the esctasy we crave is unattainable in the ways we are seeking it and how to attain it. I have reread this book so many times and always am finding new meaning in it. Johnson is an eloquent and thorough. This book will make you think differently about life.

sheerly enjoyable.......1999-01-05

this is a book to be experienced, to be savored, and read,in between the lines, so that you may recognize the god of joy within. i tried to make the book last as long as i could. johnson has a wonderful way of informing the reader of his/her heritage and gently waking them. all his books are excellant.

Condescending towards psychology, religion, and spirituality.......1997-12-09

Having to read this book for a Mysticism class I was appalled at the irresponsible and totally inacurate information slanderously thrown together. This book pastes Dionisus into any form utilizing kindergarden techniques. The author claims to have spoken with Dr. C. G. Jung, but his lack of knowledge suggests strongly that he has only glanced at Jung's collected works. Ecstacy is an insult to any educated person in the ways of psychology, religion, pagan philosophies, inner spirituality and growth. Personally, it should be removed from all bookstores and book outlets as it is a pathetic excuse for writing. In short, do not read this book.

Ecstasy - Understanding The Psychology Of Joy

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Ecstasy - Understanding The Psychology Of Joy
Robert A. Johnson -
Manufacturer: Harper Publishing -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OC2FKM

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Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy
Robert A. Johnson
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF75WW

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