- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (9 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141010029
- ISBN-13: 978-0141010021
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,316,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Up the Down Escalator is a commendable book by Charles Leadbeater, one of the leading lights of New Labour thinking, who claims that contemporary thinkers are too pessimistic in analysing the effects of globalism. In response to both radical and conservative critics of globalisation, Leadbeater offers what is often a painfully cheery and upbeat assessment of the ways in which global science, technology and business will affect all our lives for the better, suggesting that "far from retreating from globalisation we should take it forward and deepen the process, from markets and trade to society and governance".
Leadbeater spends a long time analysing just why everyone has been so relentlessly pessimistic about globalism; instead, his book "challenges the power of pessimism: arguing against pessimism feels like walking up the down escalator, it is quite hard work. Yet there are strong grounds for thinking quite optimistically about what the 21st century might hold". Rejecting the 20th century belief in utopias, Leadbeater argues for a personal and political investment in technology, which he argues "will open up ways to transform our world far more than politics". The book is full of interesting discussions of the importance of the Internet, but often descends into rousing but ultimately opaque political rhetoric, like "dispense with the vocabulary and social security and instead focus on policies for learning and the family". Terrorism, religious fundamentalism, Africa and Asia hardly figure in Leadbeater’s book (which annoyingly lacks an index). These are curious omissions in a book that claims to point the global way forward. Up the Down Escalator is elegantly written, but at over 300 pages its argument is just too broad and lacking in specific analysis to be convincing, however pleasant the picture he paints of the future. –Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The 1990s appeared to be Utopian - the Cold War had ended and democracy had begun to spread around the world. At home, the new economy, New Labour and New Britain declared a break with the past. The terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 however, brought a different, more sombre mood, but one already hinted at by the collapse of the high-tech stock boom and increasing fears about globalization. This text argues that pessimism is the most powerful ideology of the early-21st-century and further, that it is fundamentally wrong. The author claims that the main forces shaping our society - innovation and technology, globalization and education and democracy and self-government - offer grounds for optimism.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was sent to me as a 'freebie' by some Consultancy practice. As I can't remember who it was who sent it to me, and they didn't enclose a 'compliments' slip, I don't know who to thank!
This book is worth reading just for the preface [to this Pengiun edition] "More Globalisation, Not Less' alone. Although at 21 pages it seems more like a bona fide Chapter than a Preface, but the description of the world as a 'boardgame' (page ix onwards) is a very, very powerful metaphor - almost poetic!
I thought that in Chapter 1 the explanation of 'Boundaries' (page 37) by using the analogy of how our digestive system works was another unconventional twist in the telling; and so it went on through the other chapters.
It doesn't come across as full of 'hype' pro-Globalisation or anti-Anti-Globalisation, but just gives a calm & collected statement without arousing the emotions. So if you want an emotional polemic to approve or attack, then this isn't the one.
This book is worth reading just for the preface [to this Pengiun edition] "More Globalisation, Not Less' alone. Although at 21 pages it seems more like a bona fide Chapter than a Preface, but the description of the world as a 'boardgame' (page ix onwards) is a very, very powerful metaphor - almost poetic!
I thought that in Chapter 1 the explanation of 'Boundaries' (page 37) by using the analogy of how our digestive system works was another unconventional twist in the telling; and so it went on through the other chapters.
It doesn't come across as full of 'hype' pro-Globalisation or anti-Anti-Globalisation, but just gives a calm & collected statement without arousing the emotions. So if you want an emotional polemic to approve or attack, then this isn't the one.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A refreshing change from the status quo when it comes to perceptions of modern society, globalisation, politics, terrorism, global warming. The author explains why there are a great many reasons to be optimistic about the future, how we are living better than ever in the past and how he believes human ingenuity will overcome all the problems which seem to be towering above us. He also explains how the solution to the worlds problems is more globalisation and free trade, not less.
A good supply of coffee, a comfortable chair and this book is a great way to while away a rainy day, and will quite possible change your perceptions of society.
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