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'In the vast landscape of literature on China rising Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing stands out as a beacon of bold creativity and as pursuing a sustained trail-blazing argument.' Goran Therborn, University of Cambridge. 'Arrighi is a student of the French historian Fernand Braudel, and the book has the range and ambition of Braudel's work' --Financial Times
This book is an impressive result; it will have a major impact...Arrighi argues his case in great detail - using an elaborate exegesis of 'The Wealth of Nations', which will send many readers back to that text in amazement' --Economic and Political Weekly
'Adam Smith in Beijing' follows, and completes, his previous volume 'The long Twentieth Century'. Together they constitute a stunning work of world history with theoretical and political intent whose intellectual roots lie in a mix of radical historiographical traditions --Radical Philosophy
This book is an impressive result; it will have a major impact...Arrighi argues his case in great detail - using an elaborate exegesis of 'The Wealth of Nations', which will send many readers back to that text in amazement' --Economic and Political Weekly
'Adam Smith in Beijing' follows, and completes, his previous volume 'The long Twentieth Century'. Together they constitute a stunning work of world history with theoretical and political intent whose intellectual roots lie in a mix of radical historiographical traditions --Radical Philosophy
Product Description
In the late eighteenth century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the conquering West and the conquered non-West. Demonstrating Smith's continued relevance to understanding China's extraordinary rise, Arrighi examines the events that have brought it about, and the increasing dependence of US wealth and power on Chinese imports and purchases of US Treasury bonds. In the 21st century China may well become again the kind of non-capitalist market economy that Smith described, under totally different domestic and world-historical conditions.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
New hegemon or paper tiger?,
By
This review is from: Adam Smith in Beijing (Hardcover)
This long book (around 400 pages) continues the arguments of Arrighi and Silver's "Chaos and Governance" in a speculative discussion of the decline of American hegemony and what Arrighi expects next, a new hegemony centred on China and East Asia. The book is divided into three broad sections. The first is a theoretical discussion, covering Adam Smith, Karl Marx, David Harvey and Joseph Schumpeter, and critiquing Robert Brenner. This section draws a crucial distinction between market and capitalist societies, and introduces the idea of a distinct East Asian development path which was headed off by western militarism. The second part reproduces Arrighi's much-praised articles from New Left Review, "Hegemony Unravelling", and basically suggests that America is past its prime as a hegemon in both economic and geostrategic terms, viewing the "war on terror" as the swansong of American power. The third and final part sets out a view of modern China as a potential new hegemon offering the possibility of an egalitarian and ecological alternative to destructive western development models in the form of a non-capitalist market society run in the national interest.One strength of the book is its critical perspective on American hegemony. It is interesting to see how apparent indicators of dominance may in fact suggest underlying structural decline. Its weakness is its uncritical treatment of China, and an account of Chinese ascendancy which covers over as much as it reveals. What, for instance, of the darker side of the Chinese system, its brutal biopolitical regime, its suppression of labour movements and national minorities, its appalling human rights record? What of the problem that its production system remains in many respects peripheral? Chinese ascendance is assumed rather than argued, and sceptical perspectives tend to be elided. One ends up with a Chinese development model without the contradictions which clearly arise in practice (for instance, the prediction of massive urbanisation suggests Arrighi is wrong in assuming a continuing prevalence of village enterprises). Arrighi's account isn't really plausible, and seems to give up on an alternative to global capitalism in effectively siding with one of its bearers as a "non-capitalist" society. Beijing becomes for Arrighi what Moscow was for an earlier generation of radicals, but whereas in that case one was at least dealing with systemic differences, in Arrighi's case the differences have to be invented. I find more plausible the idea put forward by Sassen, Hardt and Negri and others, that the world system is in transition to a hubs-and-spokes system focused on global systems, losing its previous association with a hegemonic state. This is a fairly strong book nevertheless, particularly in its theoretical interweaving of world-systems analysis with Harvey's theory of accumulation by dispossession and a geopolitically-driven model of hegemony.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
21st Century Conversation Anchor, for some time to come...,
By fCh "fCh" (GMT-5, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Adam Smith in Beijing (Hardcover)
The book begins with an analysis of the differences between free markets and capitalism, and evolution scenarios of capitalism. For the first hundred-some pages, Arrighi is SLOWLY building the theoretical foundation of his argument and draws from several sources ranging from Adam Smith and Marx to Hannah Arendt and Schumpeter, from countless (non-)academic citations to his own observations.Historically, capitalism occurs in the later stages, and at the expense, of free markets, and requires ever expansive institutions and policies. According to Arrighi, the evolution of the USA, being the latest and most expansive capitalist power, has taken the capitalist logic to its earthly limits. Indeed, the US has continued on the trajectory set by the earlier capitalist powers--the Italian Republics, Dutch Empire and British Empire--by creating more powerful capitalist frameworks, alas all this has already come to a too high of a price for itself and the planet. And, while the above arguments go back and forth, with factual illustrations and theoretical considerations, China is being analyzed in historical, comparative and Asian contexts. With the exception of some 150 years, at least for the past 5-600 years, China has been not only different from the West (and its capitalist models), but also very affluent. The differences come in many ways: military outlook and projection of power, trade, state institutions, relationships between the state and its citizens/other states, productivity, innovation and on and on. In fact, Arrighi seems to infer that, for the most part of that time interval, the Chinese have been as much closer to a free market system as far away from the capitalist system. Close to the end of the book, one sees that Arrighi does not necessarily advance a comprehensive thesis to explain even the next 50 years, but leaves the reader better equipped to continue the inferential process he started. To summarize, this process consists of the study of theoretical frameworks, historical analogies between/among capitalist powers, comparative perspectives on China and the reduction of capitalist alternatives, by elimination, for the USA. Also by limiting the range of the capitalist alternative(s) in their current and historical forms, we are left to witness for ourselves the evolution, the tradeoffs, and ultimately the future of China itself. This is a book that will most probably anchor the conversation about the 21st Century for some time to come. The wide spectrum for Arrighi's analysis provides for an integrated approach across several fields, which so far have been studied in isolation at best. How can the reader benefit more? By tightening the argument and the text itself--maybe Arrighi needs to decide who his readers are. For the public at large, a Foreign Affairs article may do it. For the more academically inclined, it is not clear how/why the events of the last 10-15 years in the US fit Arrighi's framework. Indeed, Arrighi belongs to the school of thought dating the end of the US capitalist supremacy in the 1970s. So, if the US decline started in the '70s, how was it possible for the economical revival of the '90s? In other words, was the economic revival of the '90s in contradiction with Arrighi's earlier thesis? According to the author, Britain had also gone through a similar period of economic boom at the end of the 19th century--decline, sudden prosperity followed by decline and two world wars. Reconciling current events with-in a longue durée approach may look artificial/arbitrary/a posteriori. For example, was the Project for the New American Century historically immanent, or the result of voting accidents in Florida? On the other hand, a lot of the last 8 year events seem to follow the path indicated by Arrighi. After this book was published, even the paragons of capitalism, aka the US financial system, have entered a deep structural crisis. Moreover, if we are to consider the volume of inputs alone, the US has no place to grow unless the Chinese stumble at their own (Adam Smithian-) game. At a different level, I suspect there will be some to quarrel with Arrighi's implicit higher valuation of free markets relative to capitalism. They'll probably be quick to say that the "old" left may be redefining itself in terms of opposing capitalism with free markets instead of socialism... All in all, the reader will be well rewarded by reading this book and perhaps follow its author all the way into the pages of the New Left Review magazine. This book helped me crystallize a whole number of ideas, which I could well summon up into an Open Letter, for O8: Small is Beautiful! Small(er) enterprise is better than (quasi-)monopolies; Universal healthcare is both good and necessary; Let wages converge lower; Put money into the following infrastructures: education, energy efficiency, internet, transportation; Encourage innovation and exports; Encourage quality; Bring smart people in, our universities should be the Ellis Island of the 21 Century! 2009 Addendum: Like it or not, even 20 years after the fall of Communism, Marxist critique of capitalism is still ahead in making sense out of our times.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Historical perspective on China's ascent,
By Malvin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Adam Smith in Beijing (Hardcover)
"Adam Smith in Beijing" by Giovanni Arrighi delivers a sophisticated history and analysis of the rise of the Asian economy. Displaying a deep knowledge of world history including novel insights into the works of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, Mr. Arrighi helps us understand why China's ascent has arrived at the moment when the dream of a single world capitalist state as conceived and championed by the U.S. has failed. Impeccably researched and cogently written, this accessible book succeeds in providing historical perspective on how China has come to be a key player on the world stage.Mr. Arrighi discusses how China's mixed economy of today conforms to Adam Smith's vision of a large market economy managed by an active government that ensures improved living standards for all; in fact, Smith reasoned that Asia might one day grow to assume parity with Europe. We learn that China's Industrious Revolution leveraged its large internal market and abundant labor supply to develop a diverse economy where wealth was widely dispersed among the population. In contrast, the West's Industrial Revolution conformed more or less to Karl Marx's analysis inasmuch as it allowed a relatively small class to own the means of production, secure power and finance a succession of military/industrial states whose imperialistic adventures were intended to guarantee an endless expansion of the capitalist system. Mr. Arrighi tracks the global turbulences that have been wrought as a consequence of the Western development path; the process of creative destruction inherent in the capitalist model has grown ever larger beginning with the small Italian city-states to the Dutch, British and, finally, the American empire. The author shows how each successive wave of accumulation collapsed as a consequence of escalating administrative costs including the funding of ever larger armed forces; of course, the strategy did succeed during much of the 19th and 20th centuries as China fell under domination as a consequence of the West's advantages in military technology. However, the book describes how the failures of the George W. Bush administration's economic and foreign policies are but the culmination of an ill-conceived, decades-long neoliberal project of world domination that bears striking similarity to previous fallen empires. Ironically, as U.S. hegemony has unraveled in the wake of the Iraq War, the author contends that widespread economic prosperity has allowed the Asian nations to emerge as the true victors of the U.S. War on Terror. Against this backdrop, Mr. Arrighi contemplates three different foreign policy approaches that the U.S. might consider as the Asian Age unfolds. The interconnectedness of the U.S. and Asian economies suggests to us why the differing proposals made by Robert Kaplan, Henry Kissinger and James Pinkerton have all been pursued to varying degrees simultaneously, amounting to a confused and conflicted U.S. Asian policy. Interestingly, Mr. Arrighi posits that China simply does not need to pursue a militaristic path to attain preeminence as long as the U.S. seems bent on self-destruction through its strident diplomacy and economic indebtedness; indeed, the U.S. is rapidly becoming irrelevant as more and more investment decisions are being made in Asia with less and less input and participation from U.S. business partners. Unfortunately, for a book that is subtitled "Lineages of the Twenty-First Century" the author provides scant attention addressing three major challenges that lay ahead for China: environmental deterioration, the lack of democracy and growing income inequality. Readers interested in these issues might refer to Elizabeth C. Economy's The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge To China's Future (Council on Foreign Relations Book), which argues that continued neglect of China's burgeoning environmental crisis will seriously curtail and constrain its future economic growth; and James Mann's The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression, which advances some of the reasons why democracy remains unlikely in China for many years to come. Whereas Mr. Arrighi is practically silent on these issues, both of these books suggest that serious internal conflict between a repressed Chinese working class and a privileged political class will become all but inevitable. In my view, Ms. Economy's and Mr. Mann's books serve as necessarily sobering counterweights to Mr. Arrighi's decidedly more ebullient narrative. The above minor reservations notwithstanding, I highly recommend this brilliant, timely and informative book to everyone. 14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
21st Century Conversation Anchor, for some time to come...,
By fCh "fCh" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Adam Smith in Beijing (Hardcover)
The book begins with an analysis of the differences between free markets and capitalism, and evolution scenarios of capitalism. For the first hundred-some pages, Arrighi is SLOWLY building the theoretical foundation of his argument and draws from several sources ranging from Adam Smith and Marx to Hannah Arendt and Schumpeter, from countless (non-)academic citations to his own observations.Historically, capitalism occurs in the later stages, and at the expense, of free markets, and requires ever expansive institutions and policies. According to Arrighi, the evolution of the USA, being the latest and most expansive capitalist power, has taken the capitalist logic to its earthly limits. Indeed, the US has continued on the trajectory set by the earlier capitalist powers--the Italian Republics, Dutch Empire and British Empire--by creating more powerful capitalist frameworks, alas all this has already come to a too high of a price for itself and the planet. And, while the above arguments go back and forth, with factual illustrations and theoretical considerations, China is being analyzed in historical, comparative and Asian contexts. With the exception of some 150 years, at least for the past 5-600 years, China has been not only different from the West (and its capitalist models), but also very affluent. The differences come in many ways: military outlook and projection of power, trade, state institutions, relationships between the state and its citizens/other states, productivity, innovation and on and on. In fact, Arrighi seems to infer that, for the most part of that time interval, the Chinese have been as much closer to a free market system as far away from the capitalist system. Close to the end of the book, one sees that Arrighi does not necessarily advance a comprehensive thesis to explain even the next 50 years, but leaves the reader better equipped to continue the inferential process he started. To summarize, this process consists of the study of theoretical frameworks, historical analogies between/among capitalist powers, comparative perspectives on China and the reduction of capitalist alternatives, by elimination, for the USA. Also by limiting the range of the capitalist alternative(s) in their current and historical forms, we are left to witness for ourselves the evolution, the tradeoffs, and ultimately the future of China itself. This is a book that will most probably anchor the conversation about the 21st Century for some time to come. The wide spectrum for Arrighi's analysis provides for an integrated approach across several fields, which so far have been studied in isolation at best. How can the reader benefit more? By tightening the argument and the text itself--maybe Arrighi needs to decide who his readers are. For the public at large, a Foreign Affairs article may do it. For the more academically inclined, it is not clear how/why the events of the last 10-15 years in the US fit Arrighi's framework. Indeed, Arrighi belongs to the school of thought dating the end of the US capitalist supremacy in the 1970s. So, if the US decline started in the '70s, how was it possible for the economical revival of the '90s? In other words, was the economic revival of the '90s in contradiction with Arrighi's earlier thesis? According to the author, Britain had also gone through a similar period of economic boom at the end of the 19th century--decline, sudden prosperity followed by decline and two world wars. Reconciling current events with-in a longue durée approach may look artificial/arbitrary/a posteriori. For example, was the Project for the New American Century historically immanent, or the result of voting accidents in Florida? On the other hand, a lot of the last 8 year events seem to follow the path indicated by Arrighi. After this book was published, even the paragons of capitalism, aka the US financial system, have entered a deep structural crisis. Moreover, if we are to consider the volume of inputs alone, the US has no place to grow unless the Chinese stumble at their own (Adam Smithian-) game. At a different level, I suspect there will be some to quarrel with Arrighi's implicit higher valuation of free markets relative to capitalism. They'll probably be quick to say that the "old" left may be redefining itself in terms of opposing capitalism with free markets instead of socialism... All in all, the reader will be well rewarded by reading this book and perhaps follow its author all the way into the pages of the New Left Review magazine. This book helped me crystallize a whole number of ideas, which I could well summon up into an Open Letter, for O8: Small is Beautiful! Small(er) enterprise is better than (quasi-)monopolies; Universal healthcare is both good and necessary; Let wages converge lower; Put money into the following infrastructures: education, energy efficiency, internet, transportation; Encourage innovation and exports; Encourage quality; Bring smart people in, our universities should be the Ellis Island of the 21 Century!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adam Smith provides much more insights than Neo-Liberals believe,
By Dr. F. Piribauer "pico.at" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century (Paperback)
Arrighi shows how China's extraordinary rise invites us to read The Wealth of Nations (A.Smith) in a radically different way than is usually done. In the 21st centrury China may well become again the kind of non-capitalist market economy that Smith described in the 17hundreds.
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