This book aims to change the way you think about globalization. The central assertion is that revolutionary changes in communication technology fundamentally changed globalization around 1990. The logic of how the revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) transformed globalization and its impact on the world is simple, but understanding it requires some background. Let’s start with some facts.

Globalization took a leap forward in the early 1800s, when steam power and global peace lowered the costs of moving goods. Globalization made a second leap in the late twentieth century when ICT radically lowered the cost of moving ideas. As Figure 1 shows, these two leaps—call them the Old and New Globalizations—had dramatically different effects on the world’s economic geography.

这本书旨在改变你对全球化的思考方式。主要观点是，1990年前后通信技术的革命性变化从根本上改变了全球化。信息和通信技术革命如何改变全球化及其对世界的影响的逻辑很简单，但要理解它需要一些背景。让我们从一些事实开始。

19世纪初，当蒸汽动力和全球和平降低了货物运输成本时，全球化取得了飞跃性进展。全球化在20世纪末实现了第二次飞跃，当时信息和通信技术从根本上降低了传播思想的成本。如图1所示，这两个被称为新旧全球化的飞跃对世界经济地理产生了截然不同的影响。