"In Runaway World, leading social commentator Anthony Giddens shows how globalization impacts every human on earth. Giddens examines the global marketplace, but goes beyond a conventional economic approach to look at more universal issues like family, risk, tradition, and democracy.

Runaway World describes how changing currents in the international seas of finance are destabilizing countries, and how most people (and their governments) aren't prepared to deal with an ever-accelerating capitalism and Americanization of culture. Giddens finds the changes largely positive - liberating women, spreading democracy, and creating new wealth - but acknowledges the hazards of so much money crossing so many borders and distant cultures colliding."--BOOK JACKET.