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In this original examination of business,
history and ethnicity, Joel Kotkin shows how "global
tribes" have been at the center of the world's economy
for hundreds of years -- and how they will dominate commerce
in the twenty-first century. Though the world's economy
is becoming increasingly interdependent, Kotkin shows that
as national borders dissolve, the impact of "tribalism"
has never been stronger. And he offers some intriguing predictions
on how certain "tribes" will adapt to coming economic
changes.
Among the "tribes" featured are:
The Jews: The oldest of global tribes,
the Jews figured prominently in the origins of modern transnational
business. Although small in numbers, and in the face of
their millennia-old dispersion, they have produced more
Nobel Prize winners -- and billionaires -- than most major
European and East Asian countries.
The British: Although no longer as
dominant as they once were, the British and their progeny
in North America remain the most important ethnic grouping
in the world economy, controlling by far the largest accumulation
of foreign investment and most of the world's largest corporations.
The Japanese: The first Asian group
to form a truly global ethnic economic network, the Japanese
are second in size and scope only to the Anglo-Americans.
Their "diaspora by design" now constitutes a one-world
city stretching from Bangkok to London and linked by banks,
trading companies and media as well as hundreds of special
schools that educate thousands of youngsters in the essentials
of "the Japanese spirit."
The Chinese: The fifty-five million
overseas Chinese are the fastest-growing economic force
in the world, controlling an empire that includes the booming
regions of coastal China, the high-tech centers of California's
Silicon Valley and the most vibrant sections of Manhattan.
The three major financial centers of the Chinese -- Singapore,
Taiwan and Hong Kong -- possess combined foreign reserves
twice as large as those of Japan, Germany or the United
States.
The Indians: The more than twenty
million overseas Indians today represent one of the best-educated,
affluent groupings in the world, with strong presences in
Britain, North America and East Asia. The Indians may prove
to be the next Diaspora to emerge as a great economic force.
An original vision of the past and the future
of world business, Tribes is guaranteed to provoke
discussion and controversy.
Joel Kotkin is the critically acclaimed
coauthor of The Third Century and California,
Inc. A senior fellow with the Center for the New West
in Denver and an international fellow at the Pepperdine
University School of Business and Management, he writes
frequently on domestic and global economic issues for the
Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and
Inc. magazine.
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