Goldin (globalization and development, Oxford Univ; Age of the City) argues that migration isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s an ineluctable process of human development to be embraced. His exposition offers insightful history, analysis, and prescriptions for present and future global migrations. Opening with a tracing of humanity’s expansion, from its African cradle across and around the globe, it tracks the evolution, experimentation, and exploration of people as they raided, traded, and competed to conquer, colonize, and control others, often coercing labor and exploiting production, products, and resources. Goldin explains how worldwide disruptions triggered an age of mass migration from the 1840s to 1914 and ended unrestricted migration as rising nationalism, chauvinism, and economic protectionism introduced passports and institutional controls prefiguring contemporary problems. He asserts that managing steadily rising migration requires recognizing global interconnectedness, borderless economies, workforce problems, and demographic realities in aging societies. Perhaps most of all, shifting parochial attitudes can help in reimagining extended frontiers. VERDICT This engaging and informative model of accessible scholarly synthesis, with noteworthy instructive illustrations and explanatory sidebars, deserves attention from policy makers and publics worldwide. Advanced secondary and college students and general readers can use it as a world history primer.
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