As the United States teeters on the brink of a severe economic downturn, many citizens have begun looking back at the Great Depression and wondering if it's about to happen again. An economic downturn is not necessarily a depression. When students hear the word "depression," they immediately conjure images of breadlines, migrant workers, dust bowls, and downtrodden individuals. The mechanisms of a depression, its causes and effects, and how it develops...

Others view globalization as a threat to American jobs, workers, and consumers, not to mention the health and well-being of foreign workers who may be exploited, harassed, and underpaid. This book cuts through all the political rhetoric, erroneous assumptions, and myths about globalization to explain, in an even-handed and uncomplicated manner what it is, how it works, why it has developed, and who it helps and harms. A history of the phenomenon places...