Description
Book SynopsisPresents an economist's eye to bear on an age-old question: Are market exchange and aesthetic quality friends or foes? This book asks what happens when cultures collide through trade, whether technology destroys native arts, why (and whether) Hollywood movies rule the world, and whether 'globalized' culture is dumbing down societies everywhere.
Trade Review"Mr. Cowen's point, argued neatly in Creative Destruction, is that the invasion works both ways. Indeed, it has for such a long time that it is hard to say exactly where one culture begins and another ends. Wherever people are, almost all the cultural products that they think of as indigenous owe their existence to the cultural exchange brought about by trade."--David R. Henderson, Wall Street Journal "A short but rich study... The book's basic point is that cultural globalization can increase the diversity of choices for the individual while reducing the diversity between societies across the globe... Mr. Cowen underscores that cultural globalization is and always has been a dynamic process... It can be an unsettling, disruptive process, but Mr. Cowen's book argues persuasively that it is a more creative way to go than the misguided cultural nostalgia peddled by the anti-globalization crowd."--David R. Sands, The Washington Times "Cowen has created a text at once impressively academic and thoroughly accessible."--Library Journal "Cowen's thesis is that diversity within society is heightened by globalization, at the same time that diversity across societies, as he puts it, is diminished... His book is an attempt to take a realistic look at the changes wrought by today's market-driven, free trade-oriented world."--Philip Marchand, The Toronto Star "Cowen argues that global trade and communication are enriching all the world's cultures and that there's no such thing as cultural authenticity... In fact, Cowen believes that commerce and art are allies. And he contends that because commerce is driving technology, ideas, goods, services and people across borders more freely than ever before, we are in the midst of an unprecedented boom in creativity all over the world. The quality, quantity and variety of cultural output is greater than ever; if there is more dreck, there is also more genius. And more people have more access to it than ever, at lower prices, regardless of where they live."--Daniel Akst, Los Angeles Times
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Trade between Cultures 1 2. Global Culture Ascendant: The Roles of Wealth and Technology 19 3. Ethos and the Tragedy of Cultural Loss 47 4. Why Hollywood Rules the World, and Whether We Should Care 73 5. Dumbing Down and the Least Common Denominator 102 6. Should National Culture Matter? 128 References 153 Index 173
