Humanity stands at the greatest turning point in history: Galileo and Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Michelangelo, Luther and Shakespeare, the Fuggers and the Medicis. Immortal names that represent a cultural epoch like no other: the Renaissance. Yet, as glorious and significant as the political, technological, and economic developments were on one hand, the Renaissance was equally dark and tragic on the other. The plague depopulated almost a third of Europe, massive social tensions erupted in uprisings, leading to the Peasants' Wars, and tens of thousands fell victim to the Inquisition. Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna, as two of the world's leading thinkers on globalization, demonstrate that humanity—much like during the Renaissance at the end of the Middle Ages—faces the most comprehensive transformation.