Marc Levinson is the author of several books, including The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (Princeton) and The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America. He was formerly finance and economics editor at The Economist and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He lives in Washington, DC.
[The] exploration of trade's future is particularly thought-provoking. . . . One lesson of Mr. Levinson's absorbing, centuries-long survey is that evolving global systems are always vulnerable to unexpected events. ---Matthew Rees, Wall Street Journal Smart and exceptionally well-timed. ---Justin Fox, Bloomberg Ostensibly a history of international trade through three distinct 'globalizations,' Outside the Box is most useful as a chronicle of how the pre-2008 model of complex, globe-spanning, just-in-time manufacturing has been exposed as fragile, inefficient, and opaque. ---Mike Jakeman, strategy+business Outside the Box is an intriguing synergy of social-sciences analysis, a useful aide memoire, a captivating read. Marc Levinson synthesizes well and writes smoothly, with a light touch of irony-very smart non-fiction. ---Linda Quest, International Social Science Review Marc Levinson's Outside the Box is a timely and fascinating discussion of globalization. ---Andreas Grein, Journal of Economic Literature