David

Few of us would question that the infrastructures of our globalized world are proof of the flat, Friedmanesque world in which we live. We manufacture our goods wherever we can get the best price and ship them anywhere the market demands efficiently. We can connect with any of hundreds of millions of people from pretty much every country in the world through global communication networks and social networking tools.

Once we stop looking at the infrastructure—the roads, the air routes, the shipping lanes, the cables – and start looking at the flows of traffic, it becomes very clear that some parts of the world are far more connected than others. Globalization, it turns out, is unequally distributed. We can read newspapers from Australia, India, Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, at no cost and end up with a wider view of the world. The reality is that—on average—we don’t. In fact, we get less news from international sources today than we did forty years ago. If you look carefully enough, it’s not hard to see that we live in an age of imaginary globalization.

Digital Cosmopolitans is an eye-opening reconsideration of the state of our global world, one in which it is easier to ship bottles of water from Fiji to Atlanta than it is to get news from Toronto to New York. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary research in cognitive science, psychology and sociology, it explains why a technological connection between people doesn’t inevitably lead to human connection and at the ways in which we’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that we are cosmopolitan and connected.
Having this wider picture of the world is critical for global survival. Problems like global warming, pandemic, and collective security can’t be solved by individuals or by nations acting alone—they’re global problems and they’re going to require global solutions and the most exciting opportunities—to make a difference, to make something beautiful, or to make a profit—are global in scale. We need to build solutions based on massive, transnational cooperation, which needs to begin with dialog that crosses linguistic, social, national lines.

There’s good news—we’ve got the tools we need to do this, the infrastructure that could make the world a wider place. And we’re starting to figure out what we’d need to do to build connections around the world that are real, not theoretical. Rich in examples from business, science, politics, and media, Digital Cosmopolitans explores the landscape of social, technical and policy innovations designed to more tightly connect the world and features a close look at some of the most innovative projects underway in corporate research labs and the cybercafes of developing world cities.

The picture of Mexico we most often see today, is the one of rampant drug violence and illegal immigration. While, unfortunately, there is truth to those images, they are far from the complete story. And the instinctive response—walling ourselves off—is counterproductive and even harmful to our national interests.

Overlooked in today’s bloody headlines is Mexico’s fundamental transformation. In over three short decades it has gone from a poor to a middle class nation, a closed to an open economy, an authoritarian to a vibrant (if at times messy) democracy, and a local to an increasingly binational society. But while things are much better than portrayed, Mexico does face a true security challenge. It stands at a crossroads. It can follow a path toward a top ten economy, an open democracy, and a leading world voice, or one that spirals down into drug-fueled corruption and violence. Today’s choices will define not only Mexico’s future, but also that of the United States. Perhaps no other nation is as indelibly intertwined with our economy, society, and daily lives. What happens in Mexico will affect the United States for decades to come.

Two Nations Indivisible tells the story of the making of modern Mexico, and what it means for the United States. Recounting the economic, political, social, and security changes of the last thirty years, it provides a roadmap for the greatest overlooked foreign policy challenge of our time -relations with our southern neighbor. For the good of both countries, it argues against walling the United States off from its neighbor; and instead for investing finally in a true partnership.

It was a spring day on the Las Vegas strip in 1971 when Ruby Duncan, a former cotton picker turned hotel maid and the mother of seven, led a procession. Followed by an angry army of welfare mothers, they stormed Caesar’s Palace to protest Nevada’s decision to terminate their benefits. The demonstrations went on for weeks, garnering the protesters and their cause national attention. Las Vegas felt the pinch and, ultimately, a federal judge ruled to reinstate benefits. It was a victory for welfare rights advocates across the country.

In Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty, Annelise Orleck tells the story of how a group of welfare mothers and their supporters built one of this country’s most successful antipoverty programs. Declaring that “we can do it and do it better” these women proved that poor mothers are the real experts on poverty. In 1972 they founded Operation Life, which was responsible for all kinds of firsts for the poor in Las Vegas—the first library, medical center, daycare center, job training, and senior citizen housing. By the late 1970s, Operation Life was bringing millions of dollars into the community each year.

Ultimately, in the 1980s, Ruby Duncan and her band of reformers lost their funding with the country’s move toward conservatism. But the story of their incredible struggles and triumphs still stands as an important lesson about what can be achieved when those on welfare chart their own course.

Winner of the J. David Greenstone Prize and the Gladys Kammerer Award

Transcending the boundaries of class and race, the G.I. Bill enabled a sizable portion of the hallowed “greatest generation” to gain vocational training or to attend college or graduate school at government expense. Its beneficiaries had grown up during the Depression, living in tenements and cold-water flats, on farms and in small towns across the nation, most of them expecting that they would one day work in the same kinds of jobs as their fathers. Then the G.I. Bill came along, and changed everything. They experienced its provisions as inclusive, fair, and tremendously effective in providing the deeply held American value of social opportunity, the chance to improve one’s circumstances.

But the G.I. Bill fueled not only the development of the middle class: it also revitalized American democracy. Americans who came of age during World War II joined fraternal groups and neighborhood and community organizations and took part in politics at rates that made the postwar era the twentieth century’s civic “golden age.” In an age of rising inequality and declining civic engagement, Soldiers to Citizens offers critical lessons about how public programs can make a difference.

Like the Greeks who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, the new Argonauts—foreign-born, technically skilled entrepreneurs who travel back and forth between Silicon Valley and their home countries—seek their fortune in distant lands by launching companies far from established centers of skill and technology. Their story illuminates profound transformations in the global economy.

The New Argonauts extends Saxenian’s pioneering research into the dynamics of competition in Silicon Valley. The book brings a fresh perspective to the way that technology entrepreneurs build regional advantage in order to compete in global markets. For Americans accustomed to unchallenged economic domination, the fast-growing capabilities of China and India may seem threatening. But as Saxenian convincingly displays in this pathbreaking book, the Argonauts have made America richer, not poorer.