Customer Reviews

Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The central thesis of this book is that crossing borders - or what is now called globalization - is actually nothing new, it has been going on since the first humans left their African homeland at the beginning of time. The difference between now and then is that new technologies have expanded the volume, speed and content of border crossings. Nayan Chanda has given us a sweeping overview of the history of globalization from the perspective of traders, preachers, adventurers, and warriors.

Chanda's approach is descriptive rather than prescriptive. He is well aware of the current debate on who globalization actually benefits. On the one hand, globalization has benefited millions in the developing world who now at least have low wages as opposed to no wages at all. Cheerleaders will tell you the rising tide lifts all boats. Critics, on the other hand, charge that it is responsible for many of the world's problems such as global warming, the rise in commodity prices, child labor, and American imperialism. There is certainly some truth in these charges. Chanda recognizes the debate but tries to stay above it. He argues that it is pointless to fight globalization because it has always been with us and it is here to stay. Besides that, no single entity controls it, so it would require the efforts of many to manage it.

Chanda's story begins with an analysis of his own DNA a few years ago. That test showed that he was descended from an African father more than 36,000 years ago. His ancestors were part of a group that represented some of the earliest migrations into India. Aside from international ancestry, Chanda epitomizes the 21st century cosmopolitan, having lived in Calcutta, Paris, Hong Kong, and now New Haven, he has written many scholarly articles for a number of international publications.

Traders, preachers, adventures, and warriors have always been agents of globalization. From Marco Polo on the Silk Route to the journey of the iPod from Shanghai to Chandra's home in New Haven, people and corporations will forever be crossing borders in search of profits. In the section on preachers, Chanda makes some interesting points about NGOs - such as Human Rights Watch. NGOs have taken up the role of missionaries from earlier centuries. Though non-religious, HRW has been active in places like Darfur preaching universal values. This, in my view, is admirable, for one shouldn't shy about claiming moral superiority to the killing that takes place there. NGO workers would probably object to being called preachers, but they shouldn't. Adventurers and Warriors played a large role in border crossings in the past, but less so today, since the world is getting smaller and more user-friendly, due to the advances of technology.

Although Chanda believes globalization is inevitable, he is no neoliberal freemarketer who believes in the infallible benevolence of multinationals. He believes globalization should be managed through collaboration of nation states - such as the WTO - so that there is balance and social justice. (He very critical, for example, of advanced countries protecting their agricultural markets. This is one of the few areas were poor countries can enter global markets and lift themselves out of poverty.) Corporations and NGOs have their unique roles to play, but ultimately national governments need to occasinally intervene to keep the global economy from spinning out of control or leaving large numbers of people destitute.

Chanda's short history of globalization tells us that its current critics are understandable, but basically misguided. Instead of putting up trade barriers and halting immigration they should find ways to make globalization work in their favor.

"Brother Enemy" was always considered by scholars and laypeople alike as the defining work on the war in Cambodia, and Nayan Chanda's reporting was simply brilliant. I predict that "Bound Together" will similarly be regarded as a defining work -- this time on globalization. It's a marvelous read, and the book reinforces Chanda's reputation as a careful reporter and first-rate story teller.

Nayan Chanda is a great storyteller as well as a journalist and scholar. This is a book to finish in a weekend or take on vacation--you can skim or savor. If you are a reader, you will love it, even if your knowledge or interest in this area is limited (as is mine). The editorial reviews agree that the book is sophisticated, so you can trust that the research and conclusions will serve you well in any discussion you may have about globalization, human history, or the future of our world. I plan to give this as a graduation gift to several young friends--

The chapters are succinct and the author has a global, over-reaching perspective that captivates the reader. I looked forward to reading it every night for a week. Bound Together surpassed my expectations. I initially ordered it along with three other books on similar topics about capitalism and globalization. I read the others first because I thought they would be better. However, Bound Together was the best of the bunch.

What made this book fascinating is that it's told entirely from a non-Western point of view, yet it ties in perfectly with current events. We Americans get bound up in our view of history, which is primarily Europe's, but as Chanda so wonderfully tells the story, much happened of which the Europeans were not aware. I highly recommend this book as an essential primer for those not familiar with the global history of globalization.

I had to buy this book for a class, expecting it to be disinteresting. Yet it was amazing and very informative. I enjoyed it very much. I recommend it.

Part economic history, part paen to increasing economic integration, Chandra has written a highly readable account and provided a good argument for just what the term "globalization" means.

Chandra begins at, well, the beginning - when mankind first walked out of Africa and began its dominance of the earth. The following chapters relate how the ensuing centuries brought these disparate cousins back together through trade, war and missionary work (to include, quite perceptively, the 20th century missionaries - the NGO community.)

Chandra is a proponent of the globalization process, and what he gets across in his book is that not only is this process generally positive one for humanity - it's something that has been going on for a long, long time. Basically since humans spread across the globe, we have had "globalization."

This may be a surprise to those who think that the revolution is coming. However, Chandra makes a good case that there is nothing particularly nefarious about globalization, and that, despite its rough edges (and he does not pull punches when discussing the downsides) globalization is the best opportunity for the global have-nots to better their plight.

All in all, a very good read

This book was the focus of discussion for our LIFE book class this spring.
LIFE is a program for retired adults. This book on globalization has many interesting ideas to consider and a wealth of details about many different aspects of geography, economics, sociology, politics,etc. and how they formed today's world. It is interesting to read as a narrative and will prove useful as a reference source in the future.

Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization

The book is an interesting read with great historical account. However, at times with so much of flipping dates in one section somewhere Mr. Chanda has not been able to tie all the strings together. I wish each chapter would have followed some time sequence to build better perspective and genesis of Globalization.

The book ends up being an intersting tid-bits about globalization. I would still recommend reading this to anyone, in fact, I have done it.

Bound Together by People, Places and a Canoe
[...] on 11/05/2011 in Biography, Book Review, Environment, First People, Globalization, History, Policy, Politics, See the Forest
{ Edit }

In Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers and Warriors Shaped Globalization, Nayan Chanda writes an easy to read narrative hopping around the world and across prehistoric, ancient and modern time to explore the long march of man from Africa to the moon. Putting globalization in perspective, Mr. Chandra writes,

Homo sapiens - the anatomically modern humans who emerged in Africa - is the first mammalian species that has voluntarily spread itself out to every corner of the globe and begun what we have come to call globalization.

On September 23 & 24, 2011, I got to observe a one of a kind example of just how bound together humanity is past and present in our global march. I witnessed descendants of Captain William Clark deliver a specially built 36 foot canoe to the Chinook Nation at Fort Campbell, Washington near the mouth of the Columbia River. The Clark descendants made the delivery as a 205 year old amend for a canoe stolen in March, 1806 by the Corps of Discovery lead by Lewis and Clark.

Clark Descendants and Friends Present Canoe to the Nation
For me the journey to witness this event began, well, right by where Lewis and Clark started their journey in St. Charles, Missouri. In the early 1990s, my fraternity great grand big brother (that is fraternity speak for my big brother's big brother's big brother) showed me his favorite trail a few miles up the Missouri river from St. Charles in Weldon Sprints, Missouri when we both were in town visiting our girl friends. The trail started out as a gravel road and then wound along forested hilltops to eventually make it to tall bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. I didn't know the name of the trail or any history around it, I just found the views stunning. Here is a picture I took just weeks ago when on a hike. [See on [...]

Lewis and Clark Trail, Weldon Springs Missouri
As it turned out, my fraternity brother and I were hiking on the "Lewis and Clark" trail inside the Weldon Springs Conservation Area. The Corps of Discovery spent their second night near the base of the cliff pictured (the river channel itself was in a different location 200 years ago). In fact, even this early in their journey, the Corps of Discovery received aid near this spot when a band of Kickapoo appeared to trade 7 deer in 1804. Today there is a plaque commemorating the exchange: See picture on [...]

After my initial hike in the nineties I all but forgot about the trail until life moved me back to St Louis. Fate then found my technology company acquired by Verizon and my local office moved to Weldon Springs only a few miles from the trailhead. Pretty soon I found myself hiking/running the trail regularly after work when I wasn't traveling.

A couple of years later, I was shocked to find that the "Weldon Springs Conservation Area" was in fact part of a munitions plant site that not only manufactured TNT for World War II but also later processed Uranium during the cold war. I learned the truth about the site when speaking to a friend, Rick Holton Sr, who knew of the site's history and was active across the country in River protection thru the organization American Rivers (see [...]).

My obliviousness to the history around my favorite hiking trail helped shake me awake to just how much change modern man has wrought on the earth. I wrote some state senators, went to the next public hearing and from what I could tell, an immense amount of money and time had been put into actually cleaning up the Weldon Springs Conservation Area. The irony of the name really speaks for itself however. It is either a Well Done Spring or a Well Done Spring. On the one hand, it could be so Well Done, that it is ok to have a very large high school only half a mile away from the containment dome. Or on the other, it is so Well Done (as in well cooked), that it will be years before we really know how much radioactivity is leaching into the underground water table.

The irony of the mound however also speaks for itself. The first thing I thought of when hiking up the giant rock pile mound (yes you can hike on it) was that it looked like a bigger, creepier version of monks mound in Cahokia, IL just down the Missouri river a few miles in Illinois. Cahokia Mounds is the site of the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico which at its height had approximately 20,000 residents. In fact, while at Camp Du Bois the winter of 1803-04 preparing for the expedition, Clark and another member of the group visited some of the outlying cahokia mounds before journeying up the Missouri River to meet the Kickapoo.

It was with these places stirring in my head and heart that fate then had me bump into Rick Holton Sr and Ray Gardner of the Chinook Nation when on a business trip to Washington DC. Rick and Ray had just met for the first time at an American Rivers board meeting and were sitting on the steps of The George Hotel getting to know each other. Rick's family includes several Clark descendants and Ray is a 7th generation descendant of the Chinook leaders who helped Lewis and Clark survive the long winter at the mouth of the Columbia river in 1805-06. The two met as part of Lewis and Clark bicentennial activities. I sat down in my business suit, lit a cigar Rick Sr handed me and found myself magnetized by the stories and presence of Chief Ray. I felt like I was looking up the Missouri River from my bluff across the continent and time to see through the eyes of the first people living by the pacific ocean that greeted the ragged expedition. Ray also told story after story about the lands, traditions and history of the Chinook. Ray told one story though which stood out. This was the story of how Lewis and Clark had stolen a Chinook canoe to get home. Rick acknowledged that it was a very unfortunate chapter in the Corps of Discovery's journey. I knew of the Chinook and their aiding of the expedition but I did not know of a canoe being stolen!

I kept in touch with Rick and was thrilled to learn that Rick and the Clark descendants planned to give back a canoe to the Chinook to make up for the one their ancestors had taken. The thought just struck me - a 200+ year amend! I told Rick that I wanted to be there for the ceremony. Even though I myself am not a Clark descendant, I felt bound together by places and fate to see the event, meet Ray's people and see the Chinookan tribal land.

I was not disappointed for making the trip. I was privileged to spend more time with Chief Ray and meet many of the amazing Chinook nation. I was able to hike and see the timeless beauty of the Chinook homeland as I retraced Clark's footsteps of November 18 and 19, 1805 along the pacific. Even after the ravaging of centuries of logging, fishing, industry and development the whole area reverberates with energy of native peoples. The river, wind, tides and ocean all move as one. The park now called Cape Disappointment where Clark took a group of men to reach the pacific over land is far from disappointing. The forests, low lieing salt marshes, coves and stunning ocean views are worth seeing (see below).

I met a host of precious people including Clark descendants, reenactors and sojourners like me as we toured the day before the canoe potlatch and the day of the event. One such personalities was Roger Wendlick. Roger dressed up in full elk skin on the first day as, George Drouillard, a half french / half shawnee member of the expedition.

Roger Wendlick dressed as George Drouillard
Roger spent 18 years collecting literally every written publication and artifact imaginable from the Corps of Discovery which is now part of the Roger Wendlick Collection at Lewis and Clark College.

Roger and the other historians in attendance impressed upon me that the "Lewis and Clark" expedition as it is commonly called even in this blog post at times should really be called the Corps of Discovery because it was a military mission. The journals that Captains' Lewis and Clark kept were military documents, not diaries. These were serious men on a serious mission of enormous importance. Only in 1801, Napoleon had sent a military force to secure New Orleans after Napolean himself had bought the Louisianna Terrirory from Spain in 1800. Jefferson adeptly navigated the constitutional, political and foreign policy obstacles to complete the Louisiana purchase with Napolean for $15 million. Jefferson announced the purchased to the American people on July 4, 1803 (now imagine that state of the union today - ladies and gentleman, I just bought Mexico and and part of Latin America).

A proper mindset of the duty felt by Lewis and Clark might be conveyed by watching a military contemporary of the two played by Russel Crowe in Master and Commander, the Far Side of The World (a movie I watched one night at the hotel). The British and French were in all out war as the Corps of Discovery traveled across the continent and even fighting in the very Pacific ocean that the Corps set out to reach. Spain, France, England and even Russia eyed the Pacific Northwest and it was far from likely let alone certain that what we now see as the territorial map of Unites States would come to pass.

Yet the corps were also charged as ambassadors of President Thomas Jefferson who in his first State of the Union address after the completion of the Louisianna purchase said:
With the Indian tribes established within our newly acquired limits, I have deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of establishing a good understanding and neighborly relations between us. So far as we have yet learned, we have reason to believe that their dispositions are generally favorable and friendly; and with these dispositions on their part, we have in our own hands means which can not fail us for preserving their peace and friendship. By pursuing an uniform course of justice toward them, by aiding them in all the improvements which may better their condition, and especially by establishing a commerce on terms which shall be advantageous to them and only not losing to us, and so regulated as that no incendiaries of our own or any other nation may be permitted to disturb the natural effects of our just and friendly offices, we may render ourselves so necessary to their comfort and prosperity that the protection of our citizens from their disorderly members will become their interest and their voluntary care. Instead, therefore, of an augmentation of military force proportioned to our extension of frontier, I propose a moderate enlargement of the capital employed in that commerce as a more effectual, economical, and humane instrument for preserving peace and good neighborhood with them.

~ President Thomas Jefferson, November 8, 1804

President Jefferson's spirit of "good understanding and neighborly relations" only increased in his first State of The Union Address after Lewis and Clark returned when he said:
We continue to receive proofs of the growing attachment of our Indian neighbors and of their dispositions to place all their interests under the patronage of the United States. These dispositions are inspired by their confidence in our justice and in the sincere concern we feel for their welfare; and as long as we discharge these high and honorable functions with the integrity and good faith which alone can entitle us to their continuance we may expect to reap the just reward in their peace and friendship....The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke for exploring the river Missouri and the best communication from that to the Pacific Ocean has had all the success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting communication across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce and inhabitants; and it is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke and their brave companions have by this arduous service deserved well of their country.

~ President Thomas Jefferson, December 2, 1806

The Chinook are today "favorable and friendly" just like they were in 1805 when President Jefferson's corps of discovery arrived. So favorable and friendly in fact that they quite literally kept the Corps of Discovery alive through the winter of 1805-06. David Simenski of the US National Park service superintendent of the Lewis and Clark park shared some insight on the Corps of Discovery encounter with the Chinook.

So called dismal notch where the corps barely eked out a living is the first place where the expedition is uncomfortable and out of place. Here their woodland skills are replaced by lack of water skills. They meet a Chinook culture that was uncomfortably at ease with water, trade and other parts of culture. They were used to being a spectacle and here they were not. It was a scary 6 days when chinook canoes were coming and going in weather they could not sail in. The corps had also never seen a density of people like this. So many that the corps were never out of site of a village while on the river. On top of this they were out of trade goods after 1000s of miles of travel.

Instead of taking advantage of the ragged, goodless expedition, the Chinook provided assistance to keep the Corps of Discovery discovering. The Chinook had been living and trading at the mouth of the Columbia for millennia according to the council elders and Archaeological discoveries. Even today the Chinook take tribal canoe journeys which span from Alaska to San Diego. The Chinook had also already been trading with the "tall ships" well before Lewis and Clark arrived (think back to Master and Commander). As Chief Ray and the other Chinook council members I spoke with impressed upon me the perspective of the Chinook then and now:

"... Our people knew Lewis and Clark were coming weeks before they came. We owned trade up and down the river, had for centuries, and word traveled fast that they were coming. They stood out. Their clothes were falling off. They got to our lands in November when food gathering was over. They would have starved if not for my great ... grandmothers and grandfathers that helped them."

The Clark descendants are today "deserved well of their country" because they have done all in their power to make an amend not only for their ancestors but also for their country. The Clark's ancestor was on a military mission of these United States and that military mission was so ordered not only by a President, but by one of the very Founding Fathers of this nation. Again, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, in his State of the Union, the commander and chief was using military men to execute a virtuous, non militaristic strategy of expansion "especially by establishing a commerce on terms which shall be advantageous to them and only not losing to us..."

The said truth is that the United States Government and the States of Oregon and Washington that followed as aided by the return of the Corps of Discovery as aided by the Chinook have conducted "commerce" with the Chinook on terms advantageous only to the states and only losing to the Chinook. So losing in fact that the very existence of the Chinook tribe is not even recognized by the United State Government.

"Some tribes remained recognized, but the Chinooks for some reason or another fell between the cracks. Nobody can understand why we were not recognized any longer, so we've had a long fight.... I've been working on this for about twenty-five years" (Chief Cliff Snider interview: 2002).

[...]

The unrecognized status of the Chinook reminds me of a quote of a fellow founding father and federalist rival of Thomas Jefferson uttered only 16 years before Lewis and Clark took the Chinook canoe:

States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.

~ Alexander Hamilton, Report on Public Credit, January 9, 1790

It is time for the United States Government to observe their engagements and recognize the undaunted charity of the Chinook by restoring and recognizing the Chinook Nation.

As for the Clark descendants and the Chinook at the Clark Canoe event overall, I will commend the Clark and Chinook on their bicentennial harmonious gestures and return to Nayan Chandra's Bound Together to quote the last sentence of the book:

Calls to shut down globalization are pointless, because nobody is in charge, but together, we can attempt to nudge our rapidly integrating world toward a more harmonious course - because we are all connected.

Copyright 2011 King Mediary, Inc.