Rating: 
Summary: A New Frame in Which to View World History
Review: I confess. I was Eurocentric. Despite a degree in International Economics from an east coast school known for its School of Foreign Service, I firmly believed Max Weber that the Protestant work-ethic was the source of western prosperity. I also believed in American exceptionalism. Frank's book cured me of both those false notions.A couple points I'd like to add to Frank's thesis explained in other reviews. 1) I work for one of the major trans-Pacific ocean shipping companies. The company was founded in California in 1848 and sold to the Singapore government in 1997. (Shipping going East) 2) US-bound shipments are full of manufactured goods. Asia-bound ships are filled with wastepaper or are largely empty. The West continues to produce nothing that Asia really wants. Where in times past, most of the Asian-bound shipments from England and the Netherlands were boats filled with silver and gold, today we "ship silver" to Asia in the form of electronic fund transfers. Given the trade deficit the US alone has with China and the rest of Asia, it seems only a matter of time before the Chinese start buying Manhattan and US assets the way the Japanese did in the 1980s. 3) Frank's book adds an interesting background to the history of the Roman Empire. After subjugating Europe, Rome moved eastward under Constantine the Great. First, Constantinople provided a more defensible position for the New Rome (indeed where the western capital - Rome -- fell in the 5th century, the eastern capital - Constantinople -- continued until the 15th century, despite being "on the way" as it were for invading Huns and other invading armies). But perhaps more importantly, all the commercial action was centered in the East. Moving the capital eastward took it out of the backwater of Italy and moved it closer to the overland trade routes with the Asia). 4)That the East was far wealthier than the West can again be seen in microcosmic perspective during the 4th Crusade. Western soldiers had never imagined a city as wealthy as Constantinople. When they saw it they had to have it. The West, especially Venice, did to Constantinople in 1205 as the British did to Bengal in 1857 and the Americans have been doing to the Native Americans since they got here. They took by force, not by superior ethic, religion, tradition, or racial superiority. The book itself, despite its "must read status" and historical importance, is very poorly written and highly repetitious. If you read the concluding few pages, you will have the main points of the argument. Read the rest of the book if you want the details. And Frank provides plenty of detail, footnotes, references, etc. All in all, this book is important for understanding the world's past as well as the contours of the future. I wonder how long it will take for the pendulum to swing back to Asia. Chinese-US relations are getting interesting, aren't they?
Rating: 
Summary: A fundamental book for the 21st century
Review: Since Kondratieff (1970s) discovered economy was affected by up and down cycles that could be traced back across centuries, historians studied the structure of economy at different stages of World history, the succession of hegemonic states in the West, why a certain state became the hegemon and why others failed, etc... Apparently innocent, those questions concerned preservation of US supremacy, how to maintain and prolonge it, who were the possible challengers and when and where could a clash emerge. The revolution brought by Franck is to destroy Eurocentric views adopted since 1800 bit by bit to reveal how the economic system has been working since the last 2000 years and especially the last 500 years. What it shows is that the global economy was centered around China until 1800 AD, that the main economic players of those 2 millennia were China, India and Japan assisted by Russia, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. The West was only minor and it is only because we achieved the conquest of the Americas and the exploitation of its silver deposits that we obtained a ticket in the global economy and gradually rose to proeminence. Britain was global hegemon from 1800 until 1914, displaced by the United States from then until present. Some forecasts predict that Chinese economy could outpace the US between 2013 and 2049. Author detailed and argumented study is confirmed by current reality. 4 of the 5 largest foreign currency deposits are already in East Asia: Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong. While US current account balance is at -$393 billion and EU current account balance is at -$14 billion, Japan current account balance is at $128 billion, Russia is at $30 billion and China is at $17 billion. Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia are all in positive waters. Most strategic technological monopolies are in Japan (Blindside from Eanmon Fingleton, 1995). 9 of the 10 largest harbours in the World are East Asian, leaving Rotterdam as the single exception. 70% of the World software production is in India. Most of the largest national GDP annual growth are in East, South-East and South Asia, making US robust growth of the last decade look pale and Europe's 2-3% definitly meaky. The book is fundamental because it explains the basics of this Asian economic advantage, how post-1800 Westerners could delude themselves while their ancestors (Adam Smith being the most famous) dedicated pages of study to record and analyse why Asia was so superior to the West in almost everything and why the West has risen and is maybe falling beyond again (Only a blind could not notice that 1/3 of all US supermarket shelves are filled with Made in China or that the content of high-tech products is mostly Made in Japan, Taiwan or Korea and that Pokemon, Nintedno and Playstation are kids favorite). An essential book for anyone to understand the global economy, to have an acurate look on current situation and evaluate the decisions made in the West to face Asian return to global power. A Chinese proverb says: There are no failures, only experiences. And another one: The 10.000 miles trip begins with one step. Make the first step of the next millennium and buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The book won the 1999 World History Association Book Award.
Review: This book has just won the 1999 World History Association Book Award, which was presented at the WHA conference in Victoria, BC, Canada, on June 26, 1999. The choice was unanimous, because we regard this book as being in a class by itself. Its breadth of vision, courageous analysis and apt warning not to let ethnocentrism deter historians from pursuing a global perspective on the past, all make Gunder Frank's book exceptional and a must read for historians, teachers and students of world history. The book argues that European hegemony in the modern era did not really emerge until the nineteenth century, and that before that Europe was a rather marginal player in the Eurasian world economy that was centered on China. Only the windfalls of American silver and the Atlantic slave trade enabled Europe to buy its way into the existing world economy and industrialize. Its holistic approach forces historians to look beyond Europe to understand the making of the modern world, and Frank's attention to historiographic issues is outstanding. Sincerely, David A. Chappell, Book Review Editor, Journal of World History.
Rating:
Summary: American Sociological Association PEWS Book Award 2000
Review: THIS CITATION/REVIEW WAS WRITTEN BY THE AWARD COMMITTEE and is only posted but NOT written by the book's author American Sociological Association Political Economy of World Systems [PEWS] Book Award, 2000 Winner: Andre Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1998. Andre Gunder Frank, ReOrient Andre Gunder Frank has been turning our thinking upside-down throughout his long and illustrious career. With his work on the development of underdevelopment, he successfully toppled the reigning orthodoxy of modernization theory and forced everyone to reconsider how underdevelopment comes about. The world, and our understanding of it has never been the same. Still working at full bore, fiercely attacking all of our preconceptions, Frank has written yet another masterpiece of provocative sociology. ReOrient calls into question virtually every set of assumptions that has dominated macrosociology since the inception of the discipline. All of the great thinkers of social science, from Adam Smith, to Weber and Marx, to Wallerstein, are put on the chopping block, as Frank challenges the very concept of capitalism, and of the emergence of anything special in Europe starting in the 16th century. He argues, and provides tons of evidence, that our most fundamental categories and assumptions are rooted in a Eurocentrism which has blinded us to the long historical dominance of Asia in the global system, and to continuities in global development that negate the idea of any sharp, self-generated break in European history. Frank argues that our most fundamental categories and assumptions are rooted in a Eurocentrism that has blinded us to the long historical dominance of Asia in the global system. His major contention is that it was Asia, not Europe, that held center stage for most of early modern history before 1800. The economies of Asia were far more "advanced" than any or all of Europe. Only around 1800 did Asian societies lose their dominance in the world economy, a position that came to be occupied by the West during the 19th and 20th centuries. Frank foresees a shift back to Asian dominance in the new century. The books clever title has multiple meanings, including not only reorienting our thinking, with new emphasis on the importance of the "Orient," but also pointing to the "second coming" of the East. Whether we agree with everything Frank says in this book or not, it is major intellectual achievement. It forces us to confront the assumptions and concepts that our ideas and research have stood upon for generations. Now the rug is pulled out from under us, and we must question whether all of those "givens" are just cultural biases that we have inherited. This book is like a cold bath that you enter reluctantly, shiver in, and emerge from with a bracing vigor. What defines a great book? One model is a work that synthesizes everything that we already know. The greaness of ReOrient lies in an opposite principle: that of forcing its readers to revisit everything they have thought and read. We believe such a work deserves to be cherished and honored.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of this century
Review: THIS IS THE CITATION BY THE WHA BOOK AWARD COMMITTEE, which is posted here but NOT WRITTEN BY THE BOOK'S AUTHOR WORLD HISTORY ASSOCIATION FIRST BOOK PRIZE 1999: This book has just won the 1999 World History Association Book Award, which was presented at the WHA conference in Victoria, BC, Canada, on June 26, 1999. The choice was unanimous, because we regard this book as being in a class by itself. Its breadth of vision, courageous analysis and apt warning not to let ethnocentrism deter historians from pursuing a global perspective on the past, all make Gunder Frank's book exceptional and a must read for historians, teachers and students of world history. The book argues that European hegemony in the modern era did not really emerge until the nineteenth century, and that before that Europe was a rather marginal player in the Eurasian world economy that was centered on China. Only the windfalls of American silver and the Atlantic slave trade enabled Europe to buy its way into the existing world economy and industrialize. Its holistic approach forces historians to look beyond Europe to understand the making of the modern world, and Frank's attention to historiographic issues is outstanding. David A. Chappell, Book Review Editor JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY
Rating:
Summary: First World History Association [WHA] Book Award 1999
Review: THIS IS THE CITATION BY THE WHA BOOK AWARD COMMITTEE, which is posted here but NOT WRITTEN BY THE BOOK'S AUTHOR WORLD HISTORY ASSOCIATION FIRST BOOK PRIZE 1999: This book has just won the 1999 World History Association Book Award, which was presented at the WHA conference in Victoria, BC, Canada, on June 26, 1999. The choice was unanimous, because we regard this book as being in a class by itself. Its breadth of vision, courageous analysis and apt warning not to let ethnocentrism deter historians from pursuing a global perspective on the past, all make Gunder Frank's book exceptional and a must read for historians, teachers and students of world history. The book argues that European hegemony in the modern era did not really emerge until the nineteenth century, and that before that Europe was a rather marginal player in the Eurasian world economy that was centered on China. Only the windfalls of American silver and the Atlantic slave trade enabled Europe to buy its way into the existing world economy and industrialize. Its holistic approach forces historians to look beyond Europe to understand the making of the modern world, and Frank's attention to historiographic issues is outstanding. David A. Chappell, Book Review Editor JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY
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