Jonathan Friedman (1)

These essays are the result of a summit meeting in Lund of the four main groups of world system historians trying to extend world system analysis beyond the past 500 years. (Note that this excludes Wallerstein.) They are exemplified by Frank, Modelski, Wilkinson, and Chase-Dunn. The papers from the conference were rewritten for this volume.

Frank and Gills are very good as usual. Their main fault is giving too much credence to Modelski and Thompson.

Modelski, more clearly than ever before, show more demonstrates that he does not know what he is talking about. What a spectacle!

Denemark, the lead editor, does a reasonable job of summarizing and synthesizing the four groups. show less

Personalmente mi trovo poco d'accordo con il determinismo che inevitabilmente trasuda ogni teoria strutturista di lungo periodo. Tuttavia in questo libro è contenuto un saggio di McNeill che secondo me è di un valore inestimabile. Molto, forse troppo importante per i tempi che ci attendono.