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University of California Press

About the Book

Immanuel Wallerstein’s highly influential, multi-volume opus, The Modern World-System, is one of this century’s greatest works of social science. An innovative, panoramic reinterpretation of global history, it traces the emergence and development of the modern world from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

About the Author

Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-2019) was Senior Research Scholar at Yale University and the former President of the International Sociological Association. He was the author of many books, including The Modern World-System, Volumes I-IV.

From Our Blog

Immanuel Wallerstein: In Memoriam

We are deeply saddened to hear of Yale Senior Research Scholar and true giant in the fields of sociology, economics, and world systems analysis Immanuel Watterstein's passing at age 88. Wallerstein’s highly influential, multivolume opus, The Modern World-System I, II, III, and IV, is one of this ce
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue to the 2011 Edition

1. Industry and bourgeoisie
2. Struggle in the core—phase iii: 1763–1815
3. The incorporation of vast new zones into
the world-economy: 1750–1850
4. The settler decolonization of the Americas: 1763–1833

Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"A work in the grand historical tradition...bold in its thrust....many readers will find this a contentious and unsettling work. But it is contentious and unsettling in ways healthful for the normal practice of economic history."
Journal of Economic History
"Wallerstein's work is one of those rare examples of an intellectual project that transforms the scholarly map. That anthropology, sociology, history, and political science in their present forms cannot be discussed without reference to the project remains Wallerstein's greatest achievement."
American Anthropologist
"From the first page we are engaged by a formidable intellect and relentless researcher. He is someone to take very seriously on details as well as on the generality. He has a strong sense of international interconnectedness (which he virtually invented in our era). . . . Compared to the provincialism of so many historians, Wallerstein's breadth of vision is compellingly appropriate."
Contemporary Sociology