This is one of my favorite books in my good sized Celtic studies library. This is from inside the culture itself, it's people. It provides a wonderful glimpse into the world of "who are the Irish". I have others of Kevin's books, his facts are solid, he writes in an engaging manner, and includes many wonderful bits for a well rounded picture.
I'm defintely too, supportive of a book written about a people, *by* one of those people.
I have an Irish friend who observes many of the customs written of in this book (as do his family, and myself as well) which further lends credence to it's authenticity.

Kevin Danaher is one of the more significant collectors and scholars in the study of modern Irish folklore. This book, however, is written for popular audiences. This book covers seasonal customs in very readable fashion. At the same time, you can rely on its accuracy. Put this book together with Danaher's _In Ireland Long Ago_ and Henry Glassie's _Passing the Time in Ballymenone_ and you will have a solid image of rural Ireland over the past 100-200 years.

The American public is unaware about how the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy through the IMF and World Bank. The U.S. media has failed to explain to the American public how exactly the World Bank and IMF operate to economically control thrid-world countries. These two organizations actually promote the economic colonization of the third-world. Programs like CNN Pinnacle with Willow Bay provide misleading portrayals of World Bank leaders (i.e. JAMES WOLFENSOHN, PRESIDENT, WORLD BANK). This book fills the gap left by the news media. A very interesting and short read!

The book is great for those wishing to learn more about Irish folk history, or even for those just interested in the "old ways" of Ireland. Definately a gem in my library.

This book is a collection of essays written by people who were in prominent positions with regard to "the battle of Seattle." They share their experiences before, during and since the WTO confrence. This book is a must read for those wishing to recieve a non-corporate viewpoint about the rise of corporate power in the world.

A timely book for anyone wanting to learn more about the "Battle in Seattle". Learn about the WTO, how it came to power and why we should care. Any organization brought to power under secrecy, without accountability or citizen access is to be feared. Also a useful section on how to get involved. If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

While I agree with the basic premise of the book, that corporations are exerting an obscene amount of control in world politics, I wouldn't reccomend reading this book. The author will cite a statistic, or a story, and will give no formal indication of where that quote comes from. The book is mostly just repetitive leftist polemics and rhetoric, and while I am pretty leftist myself, I try to avoid this kind of literature on either side of the fence.

Books like this should contain documentation, look for a bibliography, look for footnotes when you buy such a book.

Rather than repeat the kudos already submitted, I'd like to address the primary cause for runaway globalism. I'm old enough to remember when the American public had far more wealth and power, back in the late 40's through the early 70's, because we were a manufacturing society, a wealth-creating creditor to the nations, a nation that was self-sufficient and we had an elderly generation that could remember the Robber Barons. This book addresses the retaliation of an elite against America. An American people able to fight back against Vietnam and social engineering being rammed down our throats during the 60's. CEO's demanded that Washington do something to bust the unions that were robbing them of "opportunity costs". Earl Warren called for political economists to find a way to neuter the rebellious middle class. Nixon and Kissinger went to Red China to find out how the hell you keep over one billion people busy and servile.

They came back and began the systematic bleeding of America began; starting with Kissenger's go-ahead signal to OPEC. Ever since then, the powerful middle class has been raped and pounded into utter submission and servility. We have sacrificed millions of good jobs to the blamphemous, sophomoric lie of Comparative Advantage. That lie from Hell used to convert a self-contained American economy into a one-trick pony that only a tiny few can profit from. The rest of us have fallen into that hell prepared for the middle class: the massive service sector and all the menial, frivolous jobs you can work to make ends meet. Our elites partly replaced our lost earning power with plastic shackles: credit cards. The security of the American home has been second mortgaged to the limit, again to make up for lack of decent or dignified work. All the while, our manic-depressive, psychopathic, megalomanic corporate elites are laughing all the way to the off-shore bank.

Thirty years of looting, bleeding, and Balkanizing have accelerated social entropy to the point of no return. The only way to keep the libertinism of the masses under control is to restore FEUDAL political and social institutions. Feudalism hasn't been seen in centuries but it's coming. Those wild, out of control, multinational corporations will be our new Kings and Lords. Governments, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed, will be reduced to global civil servants of Global corporations. By law, corporations ARE persons and Global corporations will be the only true "citizens of the world".

No more will the little people EVER dare to fight back! By design, wealth accumulation will be impossible as national economies have been structured to prevent labor from ever having value. There will be an Inner cabal of wealthy Mandarins in every field but they can be replaced without harm to the system if they ever forget who pays their rare middle class pay. There will be a royal caste made up of today's highest CEO's and political figures. They sit on each other's boards, travel, conduct business, and do whatever else without ever having to interact with the massive underclass, struggling to eke out a living as cashiers, dog washers, waiters, convenience store clerks, pizza delivery, telemarketers, title pawn shop clerks, fast food slaves, etc. etc. etc!

What we are seeing is only the end result of plans made over 35 years ago.

Kevin Danaher has pulled together a brilliant collection of essays on globalization and corporations-run-amok that makes for a fascinating, insightful, and broad overview of the situation from several different perspectives. Because there's no one author but, instead, 23 authors of 23 different standalone essays, you'll find notes, footnotes, and endnotes within the chapters themselves. Some of the best authors in this field, including Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, David Korten, and Jerry Mander are represented in this book. Although this book doesn't get into politics at all but limits itself to corporate misdeeds and structural problems that allow for same, it does offer in some chapters solutions to these problems that would warm the heart of any truly concerned politician from Barry Goldwater to Ted Kennedy. As you actually read this book, you discover it's not a left-right discussion, but a human-corporate one. Fascinating reading!

This book neither advances a scholarly discussion of the potential advantages or dangers of globalization nor illuminates a discussion of the development needs of the more than three billion people in the world who live in desperate poverty. Like Danaher's earlier effort in 1994, this book is just a compilation of one-dimensional accusations and slogans attempting to discredit the World Bank and IMF and provide some intellectual basis and justification for the circus-like protests he and his fellow radicals and anti-capitalists have participated in for more than a year. The Bretton Woods institutions are far from perfect, but at least they are trying to make a difference in the fight against poverty in the world. The writers represented in this book have interesting points of view, but their views are clouded by the effort to discredit approaches with which they differ. Poverty and the challenges ahead need all the help and attention that can be mustered. It would be interesting to contemplate how much more useful the energies Dahaher and others expend in condemning the World Bank and IMF might be if they were channeled toward work in the field with operational NGOs and other private organizations to accomplish real results. This book is not worth the time of serious development activists, although I'm sure those who are looking for one-dimensional answers and direction for their street protests will find convenient slogans for their posters and justification for the paving bricks they throw through shop windows.

Kevin Danaher, editor of *Democratizing the Global Economy*, says that there are three strategies for workiing towards an economic structure that isn't controlled by secretive corporate elites. The first way is to shift public priorities from profit maximization to civic and environmental responsibility; the second is to insist on corporate accountability; the third is building a new grassroots-based structure within the shell of the old corporate structure. Education, advocacy, creation of alternatives: three ways to buck the global system.

*Democratizing the Global Economy* claims to focus on the first of these: education. It offers a variety of essays that fall into three categories: how to protest corporate globalism, the structure and influence of the World Bank and IMF, and future directions for the anti-globalism movement. The essays vary in quality. Robert Weissman's "Twenty Questions on the IMF" is a genuinely instructive piece outlining the relationship between the IMF, Congress, and the World Bank. Noam Chomsky's co-authored "A Letter to the U.S. Congress," on the other hand, seems thrown in only to include Chomsky in the volume's list of contributors. Most of the essays tend to be rhetorical rather than analytical or statistical. One sometimes has the impression of being harangued at a public meeting, and as a consequence is fired up without being instructed.

Still, the book is well worth reading. I would suggest, however, that it be read in conjunction with some more analytical treatments such as Marjorie Kelly's *Divine Right of Capital* or Charles Derber's *Corporation Nation*.

I purchased this book in order to help me on my High School Senior Thesis, which is on the subject of Third World Debt. While the stories are great, little information is devoted to actual numbers and specific examples of World Bank/IMF actions. Also, the stories from participants from the WTO protests in Seattle and the World Bank/IMF protests were interesting, but come from a very liberal, "My rights are more important" attitude.

One wonders what those who contributed to this one-dimensional effort to justify or explain the anarchy in the streets at recent international meetings did with their time before they took up protesting as a profession. Certainly not work in the field of development for a serious organization trying to make a difference in the lives of those in developing countries. Who appointed them to speak on behalf of these poor? This book is a waste of time for anyone seriously concerned about the three billion people who live in poverty. It is unintentionally revealing of a group of people who presume to criticize organizations owned and run by legitimate governments accountable to their citizens, operating in a transparent fashion with clear identification of where their funding comes from and where it goes. The irony is that these self-declared protectors of the poor have been elected by no one, operate in relative secrecy, are intolerant of criticism and do not publicly disclose the sources of their funding.

This is a very good book if you are just beginning to be interested in the politics and actions of the Bretton Woods instititions. It is one of the few books I have found in this area of criticism that does a good job of including actual data to back its claims without dragging the reader down in economic methodolgy.

I personally feel that every member of the developed world should read this book just to know how they are being indirectly represented abroad through their tax-dollars.

This book is great. The reviews who have criticized this book are very uninformed people, who clearly do nothing besides preserving the status quo. I can picture them now eating their caviar while rolling down Rodeo Drive in a BMW. Anyways, read this book. Read anything and everything by Kevin Danaher, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva, etc. Open your eyes to what is going on in the world. We, the people, can, and must, reclaim our power.

It was exciting and adventurous, but it wasn't told very well