From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives Hardcover – March 1, 2016

There are two common aphorisms about history. One is that “Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it.” But Mark Twain cautions us that history does not repeat, but it does rhyme. One of the benefits of reading From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives by Jeffrey Garten is that you get a sense of one of those rhymes.

Garten sat out to tell the story of globalization through ten extraordinary lives. He wrote a book that gives us an idea of what it’s like to live through an extraordinary period in history because that’s exactly what every one of his subjects did.

You might ask why he chose mini-biographies to look at the history of globalization. After all, as a business professor, he could analyze events in economic terms or theories of history. Instead, he chose a series of mini-biographies. The answer comes early in the book when Garten says this:

“We often give too much credit to the power of ideas and not enough recognition to the importance of effectively implementing them on the ground; indeed, generating the purely intellectual breakthroughs is frequently the easy part of great transformations.”

The lives he chose to discuss are interesting in themselves. Here’s a list.

Genghis Khan
Prince Henry the Navigator
Robert Clive
Mayer Amshel Rothchild
Cyrus Field
John D. Rockefeller
Jean Monnet
Margaret Thatcher
Andrew Grove
Deng Xiaoping

I knew something about several people on the list, but I learned more about them from Garten’s bios. Even more exciting for me, there were several people on the list that I didn’t know a thing about, such as Robert Clive and Cyrus Field. Finding out about them, what they did, and why it mattered was a big plus.

If all you do is dip into the book and read a biography or two, you’ll probably get value for what you paid. If you read the entire book from beginning to end, you’ll be able to see themes emerge and you’ll gain the understanding of globalization that Garten was after.

There’s one more big plus. Garten is an academic, and most of the time when an academic writes a book like this, he or she begins with a theory and then seeks out things to prove it. Often, the author clings tenaciously to the original theory in spite of the very evidence he or she presents. That’s not true here, and it’s both refreshing and insightful.

Jeffrey Garten began his book with the idea that the people he had selected were visionaries, people who took the long view and looked at the big picture. Here’s how he describes what happened to that idea as he wrote the book.

“Having delved into their lives more deeply, however, I came to a different conclusion: they did not have grand strategies in mind, and they did not spend much time envisioning the major transformations for which they would be responsible. None set out to change the broader world, just the smaller, personal one they could see and understand.”

That rings true for me. I’ve known and studied several great and accomplished people. It’s always been my impression that they did not see their world in the same way that we see it when we look back on their accomplishments. Some dealt with the problems that were in front of them and followed the chain of causation wherever it led. Others had a single great cause and their understanding of that cause developed as they worked through the challenges of making it real.

Bottom Line

If you want to gain a greater understanding of globalization and how it came to be the way it is, From Silk to Silicon will increase your understanding. If you’re interested in how people of great achievement do what they do, you’ll find some compelling biographies in the book. Either way, it’s worth buying.

This book draws connections between people and events that most of us would never have thought to make, but once made, will never forget.

For example, I bought "From Silk to Silicon" because I was interested in learning more about just one of the ten individuals that Jeffrey Garten chose to profile, namely Margaret Thatcher. I knew he drew heavily upon Daniel Yergin's excellent book, "The Commanding Heights" which I also believe to be a must read book, so I hoped that it might simply contain a few morsels of new info that might essentially serve as a substitute for a much needed sequel to that book.

I was worried that the supposed attempts to bring each personality to life would consist of the same sort of non-substantive filler that some authors have included in other books apparently in an effort to demonstrate that by knowing someone ordered roast beef for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon in a swank restaurant with blue tablecloths and matching napkins, this would prove how much more knowledgeable they were than the rest of us about the views held and/or the actions taken by an important figure. But, fortunately, what I found instead was an excellent summary of the life and times of The Iron Lady and the ongoing relevance of her bold actions to the world in which we live today that touched upon her personal life only to the extent necessary to add insight, followed by some enlightening commentaries by Jeffrey Garten himself, e.g.,

"Still, it is worth taking a minute to reflect not just on the nature of the revolution that Thatcher wrought but also on its ultimate impact. ...The future of globalization belongs to a judicious balance between the private and the public, between competition and collaboration, between the market and the state, between what nations can do on their own and what they must do together--in other words, between Thatcher and [Jean] Monnet [who is profiled in another chapter of the book]. This much is certain: given the economic and social pressures that have arisen around the world--such as slow growth, income inequality, and high public-sector debt--a major debate is now taking place concerning the size, scope, and function of the public sector. These issues are at the heart of what managing globalization is all about, and the ideas and policies of Margaret Thatcher will never be far from the center of those heated discussions."

Although I had intended to read only one additional profile, that of Deng Xiaoping, now, I can't wait to read the profile of Jean Monnet as well, along with all of the remaining profiles, so I can enjoy each of those "ah-hah" moments when previously unseen patterns emerge that help us to see the world around us from a more enlightened perspective. Hopefully, it will enable us to collectively shape a better world--one that finally recognizes this time around that "It's about the people, stupid" and in that sense maybe it will be Jeffrey Garten who will earn a chapter in a future book of this kind, although I would also like to learn more about the lives of all of us who are affected by globalization, not just the lives of those who have played a role in bringing it about.