Globalization in World History by A.G. Hopkins: A Review
This paper reviews A.G. Hopkins's edited volume Globalization in World History (2002), which challenges the common assumption that globalization is a modern, Western-driven phenomenon. Drawing on contributions from scholars specializing in China, Islam, India, and Southeast Asia, Hopkins re-maps the geography of globalization to reveal its deep historical roots and non-Western dimensions. The review highlights key arguments from contributors such as Amira Bennison on Islam and Hans van de Ven on the Tang dynasty, and evaluates the book's success in demonstrating that globalization is an ongoing, uneven, and historically diverse process rather than a singular product of Western modernity.
- Introduction: Challenging the Modern Myth of Globalization: Book reframes globalization as pre-modern and non-Western
- Non-Western Origins and the Diversity of Globalizing Forces: India, China, Arabia challenge Western-centric globalization narrative
- Islam, China, and Pre-Modern Globalization: Bennison on Islam and van de Ven on Tang dynasty
- Globalization as an Ongoing and Uneven Process: Globalization promotes fragmentation alongside uniformity
- Scholarly Merit and Critical Assessment: Evaluating Hopkins's editorial achievement and academic value
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What makes this paper effective
- The review clearly identifies and evaluates the book's central thesis — that globalization predates Western modernity — and tests it against the evidence presented by the volume's contributors.
- It draws on specific examples (Amira Bennison on Islam, Hans van de Ven on the Tang dynasty) to ground its analysis in the book's actual content rather than speaking only in generalities.
- The paper maintains a consistently evaluative tone, offering both summary and critical perspective on Hopkins's editorial choices and scholarly aims.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of thesis-driven book review: rather than simply summarizing each chapter, the reviewer identifies the volume's overarching argument and evaluates how effectively the collected essays support it. This approach shows how to engage critically with an edited collection by assessing the coherence of its central claim across multiple contributors.
Structure breakdown
The review opens by situating the book's purpose and correcting common misconceptions about globalization. It then moves through the book's non-Western focus, highlighting specific regional contributions before addressing the book's conceptual argument that globalization is uneven and incomplete. The paper closes with a brief evaluative statement on the volume's scholarly caliber and its place in academic literature.
Introduction: Challenging the Modern Myth of Globalization
A.G. Hopkins edits a comprehensive historical analysis of the theme and phenomenon of globalization in Globalization in World History, published in 2002. The editor's starting point is that globalization is far more than a "catch-word of the day."
Globalization has been mistakenly framed as, first, a modern phenomenon that emerged in the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars, and second, a Western-led phenomenon. In fact, globalization far predates the twentieth century and far transcends the Western hegemony that has defined the modern world. The story of globalization is not equivalent to the story of the rise of the United States as a superpower, or even simply the rise of the West as a global colonial and imperial force. Globalization in World History accomplishes the central goal of "re-mapping the geography of the subject" in order to "point the way towards a truly global history of globalization."
The central theme of the volume — a collection of seemingly disparate essays — is that globalization has been taking place for centuries and is an ever-evolving feature of the human landscape. It is described as an "analysis of the origins, nature and consequences of globalization," encompassing the "economics, politics, and sociology of the phenomenon."
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