Years ago I asked Ed Crane about an upcoming Olympic Games, and he expressed indifference. While he’s a big sports fan, Crane is not a big fan of the Olympics. His reasoning was and is that games pitting countries against countries promote the very nationalism that drives so much needless (and bloody) global conflict.
At the time of my question to Crane, I was very much taken aback by his response. Who wouldn’t love the Olympics? It’s like saying you hate Beagles. Except that Crane was making a very good point.
His thinking came to mind while reading University of Exeter historian Marc-William Palen’s essential new book, Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World. In this brilliantly detailed history of the free trade movement, Palen reveals something that will be eye-opening to members of the left and right, but arguably not surprising: free trade was historically an ideology most passionately embraced by members of the left. In Palen’s words: left-wingers “all shared the belief that economic interdependence could foster democratization, economic and social justice, and world harmony.”
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