Science of the Time, formally known as Signs of the Time

What it Is:

his week we recommend 4 different books that shed four different lights on the history of globalization with an extra emphasize on where globalization hurts and lead to Depression, Discontent & Distrust. All very good reads. Not in order to immediately integrate them into your work next Monday. But great to improve your sophistication -J. And, once again, all extremely insightful in their own way.  (Click on ‘Read Why it’s Cool’ below)

Why it's cool:

1. Reappraisals

“Superb” said the Daily Telegraph. “Indispensable” said the Guardian. We read the book because in these intense post-recession days Discontent & Distrust are substantially on the rise. Studying therefore what Discontent & Distrust looked like in the former century, is a must for Science of the time’s serious trendwatching. (We always said we are not into trend watching to show you the latest gadgets. We are in it to show the mentality behind! And We Stick To That.)

Reappraisals is a great help to understand contemporary Discontent & Distrust with more depth.

Quote: In the spring of 2001, during a BBC radio discussion of the forthcoming British general election, a young journalist voices her frustration. ‘Don’t you agree’, she asked her fellow panelists, ‘that there is no real choice? Tony Blair believes in privatization, just like Mrs. Thatcher’. ‘Not quite’, replied Charles Moore, editor of the (Conservative) Daily Telegraph. ‘Margaret Thatcher believed in privatization. Tony Blair just likes rich people’.

Quote: The Grand Narrative of Nation and History and Progress that characterized the political family of the twentieth century seem discredited beyond recall. And so we describe our collective purposes in exclusively economic terms – prosperity, growth, GDP, efficiency, output, interest rates, and stock market performances – as though these were not just means to some collectively sought social or political ends but were necessary and sufficient end in themselves.

2. Human Smoke

The Beginnings Of World War II
The End Of Civilization
Author: Nicholson Baker

Post-recession mentality in the West is often compared to the collective mentality of the Depression thirties of 20th century. So it is important to read about that period in order to understand contemporary times better. Human Smoke is an excellent intro to do so. The book consists of very many documents of the thirties itself: journalistic pieces, political speeches, parts of memoirs and diaries. Extremely authentic, therefore.  An intense reading. A thorough learning experience.

Quote: Ghandi wrote an open letter to Adolf Hitler. He used ‘Dear Friend’ as a salutation and tried to teach him the techniques of nonviolence. It was December 24, 1940.

3. After Tamerlane

Fantastic book about the complex moves of growing globalization since the 14th century. It puts a pretty elaborate perspective on the process of globalization that is determining our times more than ever before.  It puts globalization into perspective and invites us to re-think over and over the pseudo self-evident ‘truths’ of our times. This book is a wonderfully intriguing perspective on the past, present and future of empires.
We can sketch the general features of ‘the globalized world’, -the stage that globalization has now reached. The features can be briefly summarized as follows:
1) The appearance of a single global market…
2) The intense interaction between states that may be geographically very distant but whose interests have become global, not regional.
3) The deep penetration of most cultures by globally organized media, whose commercial and cultural messages have become almost inseparable.
4) The huge scale of migrations and diasporas…
5) The emergence from the wreck of the ‘bipolar age”(1945-1989) of a single ‘hyperpower’ (The USA), whose economic and military strength, in relation to all other nations, has had no parallel in modern world history.
6) The dramatic resurgence of China and India.

4. Vermeer’s Hat

The Seventeenth Century And The Dawn Of The Global World
Author: Timothy Brook

Heart-warming, very eloquent book that describes the beginning of our globalization process as it starts in the 16th century. Departure point are the paintings of the Dutch artist Vermeer. Unexpected but very insightful. No book to use immediately for your work or for your university papers. But a book that will make you a bit more sophisticated. And happy because it is a joy to read.

In one painting, a Dutch military officer leans towards a laughing girl. In another, a woman at a window weighs pieces of silver. In a third, fruit spills from a porcelain bowl onto a Turkish carpet. Vermeer’s images haunt us with their beauty and mystery. What stories lie behind these exquisitely rendered moments? Through these intimate pictures, Timothy Brooks shows the rapidly expanding world of the seventeenth century from the beaver-trappers of Canada and the silver mines of the Americas to Delft itself and the China seas.