Brave modern world

Posterity may well decide that the most significant, profound and far-reaching development of the twentieth century has been the Technological Revolution which began immediately after the Second World War. With a speed that is both frightening and dangerous, computer technology, bio-engineering, fax and television communication systems and the various applications of atomic energy seem to be providing the world with unlimited opportunities. And yet we may question whether everything modernity has to offer is good and beneficial, whether it has not in fact created new problems of poverty, uncontrolled urban growth, cultural and social dislocation rather than solving old problems. Jean Chesneaux, Professor Emeritus of the University of Paris and an eminent student of the social and cultural history of both, the West and the Far East, illustrates how our very notions of space and time have become disordered, how our world has fallen under the control of a global economy manipulated by transnational companies, how the whole framework of political society has been undermined--and how all of this has happened not only in the traditional West of Europe and the United States, but also in the Far East and even in the formerly socialist countries of the onetime Communist bloc, which had crumbled so spectacularly by 1991. Professor Chesneaux seeks both to organize in a concise way many ideas that have been floating about for a number of years and to explain his own views on the ominous direction in which our globe is traveling. While the general argument of his analysis seems to lead to apocalyptic conclusions, he is also at great pains to pinpoint flickering and sometimes glowing signs of hope, such as grassroots protest, the green movement and joint community efforts to save some kind of cultural identity. Altogether, this is a book of great importance for the future of our world.