Globalization the development of a world without economic frontiers has become an increasingly popular subject for economists, social scientists and political commentators. The conventional wisdom is that this new international economy is the natural outcome of market forces and cannot be resisted except at great cost to economic and social welfare.

The Global Economy 1944-2000 challenges this argument on three grounds. First, the national power of the USA has been manipulated since the 1940s to promote an open international economy. Second, multinational capital emerged as a key influence in support of the historic aims of US foreign economic policy. Third, there has been resistance to these pressures over the last sixty years by socialist, social-democratic and by radical nationalist movements in the industrialized and developing worlds. It was not the market so much as the interplay between these influences that shaped the contemporary international economy. By bringing a clear historical perspective to the study of the world economy since 1944, Scott Newton shows how it has changed over time in response to the balance of forces within and between countries, and is not simply destined for free market globalization or any other inevitable fate.