As an educator I believe that students need to better understand
the world they live in. In order to do this they have to be able to
critically examine the political and economic systems that have brought
about 20th century societies. If you are looking for a textbook to
help students do this, then Global Systems is the one. Right
from the beginning, Rees and Jones set out to explain the book's purposes
and make it very easy for the reader to understand what things they
want to bring out.
Global Systems examines four political and economic issues
with which 20th century societies are confronted. Part I traces the
development of contemporary political and economic systems in theory.
It accomplishes this by examining the values, beliefs, ideologies
and thoughts upon which they are based. Models are used to assist
in the understanding of these interrelationships and simple charts
visually show the relationships between ideas. Part II looks at 20th
century political and economic systems using case studies. These apply
the theory and models used for understanding political and economic
systems to case studies of different real-world democratic and non-democratic
systems. The eight case studies deal with Canada, the United States,
Sweden, Japan, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation
and China. After reading any one of these case studies the reader
will have a very good understanding of all the issues. Interestingly,
when certain points are raised in one case study they are compared
to similar points in Canada. Models are used again, relating ideologies
to political systems and economic systems and then relating political
and economic systems to political economies. Part III deals with the
challenges of the 21st century. The authors look at some contemporary
issues and ideas including the examination of concepts such as nationalism,
globalization, technology and information, global disparities, population
growth and aging along with environmental protection.
Throughout the textbook the reader will find supplemental information,
in the form of model icons, charts and related curriculum content,
in the margins. The titles are coded by size, type and colour. This
enables the reader to easily identify how the content is organized.
Teachers will be able to easily create topic outlines of chapter content
simply by following the hierarchy of headings. Review pages at the
end of each chapter include a chapter summary along with questions
and activities to assist learning. There are four pages of summary
material inside the front and back covers for quick reference.
The Appendix provides the reader with a variety of ideas for studying,
making notes, critical thinking, analyzing sources, essay writing
and preparing for and writing exams. Some graphic organizers are provided
as sample formats for organizing and learning new material. This textbook
even has a web site dedicated to parts of it; readers simply key in
a code supplied with the textbook. Overall the textbook is well written
and the layout is exceptional with full colour. I highly recommend
Global Systems for use as a classroom textbook or for one's
own reference.