A "recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we're living through, as a struggle between old power hierarchies and new social networks"--Dust jacket.

Imagines three different perspectives on the the founding of Facebook, one from a Harvard student, one from a Harvard professor, and one from a potential investor.

"The Global Lives of Things considers the ways in which 'things,' ranging from commodities, to works of art and precious materials, participated in the shaping of 'globalisation' in the early modern period. This volume traces the movements of objects through human networks of commerce, colonialism and curiosity. It argues that material objects mediated between the forces of global economic exchange and the constantly changing identities of individuals,...