Barry Eichengreen

The economic crisis is hurting the world's top currency. But the pound, the yen, the euro, the renminbi, and the IMF's accounting currency are no match for the dollar. At least for now.

In John Gillingham's latest book, European integration is an economic story. But how does that affect internal security issues and a common foreign policy?

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz's account of his years in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank is a prosecutor's brief against globalization. Whether it will be enough to convince the jury is a different story.

In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman argues convincingly that globalization is here to stay, thanks to the Internet and the microchip.

In The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, David S. Landes argues that Europe's temperate climate encouraged hard work and capitalist development, while the heat of the tropics brought reliance on slaves. Will the legacy of these differences persist?