Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-372) and index.

The African beginning -- From camel commerce to e-commerce -- The world inside -- Preachers' world -- World in motion -- The imperial weave -- Slaves, germs, and Trojan horses -- Globalization: from buzzword to curse -- Who's afraid of globalization? -- The road ahead -- Chronology.

Since humans migrated from Africa and progressively dispersed throughout the world, they have found countless ways and reasons to reconnect with each other. In this entertaining book, Nayan Chanda follows the exploits of traders, preachers, adventurers, and warriors throughout history as they have shaped and reshaped the world. For Chanda, globalization is a process of ever-growing interconnectedness and interdependence that began thousands of years ago and continues to this day with increasing speed and ease. In the end, globalization - from the lone adventurer carving out a new trade route to the expanding ambitions of great empires - is the product of myriad aspirations and apprehensions that define just about every aspect of our lives: what we eat, wear, ride, or possess is the product of thousands of years of human endeavour and suffering across the globe. Chanda reviews and illustrates the economic and technological forces at play in globalization today and concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of how we can and should embrace an inevitably global world.