A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World [Paperback]

Acclaimed by readers and critics around the globe,A Splendid Exchangeis a sweeping narrative history of world trade—from Mesopotamia in 3000 B.C. to the firestorm over globalization today—that brilliantly explores trade’s colorful and contentious past and provides new insights into its future.

[An] entertaining and greatly enlightening book . . . Bernstein is a fine writer and knows how to tell a great story well. . . .A Splendid Exchangeis a splendid book. —The New York Times

“Superb . . . [A] significant contribution . . . The chronological range of Bernstein’s book is staggering. . . .A Splendid Exchangeis a work of which Adam Smith and Max Weber would have approved…. What really marks Bernstein out is his talent in understanding, and then explaining, international commercial linkages.” —Paul Kennedy,Foreign Affairs

“Sparkling…Fascinating…One freewheeling historical passage follows another…A Splendid Exchangeis saved from any possible tedium by its feast of contrarian conclusions, its broad historical sweep, and, especially, its vivid characters.” –Businessweek

“Highly entertaining…In an era when trade is defined by interminable World Trade Organization talks and offers nothing more romantic than slab-sided container ships ploughing between nondescript ports, William Bernstein’s book is like a trip to the movies to watch Johnny Depp swinging through the rigging.” –Hugh Carnegy,Financial Times

“Rollicking…Mr. Bernstein whisks his reader on a tumultuous journey….A Splendid Exchangeis a timely and readable reminder that the desire to trade is not only one of the oldest human instincts but also the cause of many of the most important developments in our shared history….For anyone wanting a painless primer in the ideas of Adam Smith, lƒ½