Historical Evolution of World-Systems (Evolutionary Process in World Politics Series)

Mostly American sociologists and anthropologists—no historians—describe various aspects of the rise and fall of great powers in the modern and premodern world from the world-systems perspective. Their topics include Eurasian C-wave crises in the first millennium BC; urbanization and empire formation in world-systems since the Bronze Age; and contentious peasants, paternalist state, and arrested capitalism in China's long 18th century. The nine essays are revised from presentations at a 2002 conference in Riverside, California. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR