Once a year I choose a book that deals with some aspect of globalization in an interesting and illuminating way, and award it the “prize” for the Globalization Book of the Year (also known as the “Globie”). Previous winners are listed below. This year (for only the second time), I have two titles to recommend.

The first is The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire by Neil Irwin of the Washington Post. Irwin describes the responses of Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank to the financial and economic crisis that began in 2007. The account of how each man reacted to the crisis is quite riveting. Bernanke emerges as the policymaker who most quickly understood the magnitude and consequences of the implosion in the financial markets. The narrative also provides an overview of central banks and monetary policy.

Angus Deaton of Princeton University deals with very different aspects of globalization in The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality. In the first part he offers an account of the medical and other advancements that have contributed to prolonging our lives, and how uneven that progress has been across nations. The second part of the book deals with inequality, first within the U.S. and then the rest of the world. The last section presents his view that foreign aid has failed to assist nations that have not shared in the improvements in the human condition. Deaton, a well-respected development economist, combines historical with economic analysis to explain the reasons why so many of us live longer and in better circumstances, and why so many others have not yet made that transition.