The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (Modern World-system, 1)

In his seminal works on capitalist world-system, Emmanuel Wallerstein made several major contributions/revisions to theories of capitalism. First, he re-defined the geography of capitalism, arguing that capitalism can only fully emerge in a world-system economy consisting of core, semi-peripheral and peripheral areas. Second, based on classical Marxism, he proposed that division of labor and formation of one bourgeois/capitalist class on a world-system scale across different areas nurtured particular modes of production, social organizations and subsequently domestic and international politics. Third, he reconfigured economic history of Europe into one of various stages of thrusts in the core areas and interactions among core, semi-peripheral and peripheral areas, and he attempted to reconstruct major surges of capitalism as connections between secular developments (for example the introduction of American precious metal bullions into Europe and the population cycle) with cyclical nature of capitalism (the long-term economic booms and busts) and historical accidents (wars, ecological crisis, balance of power etc).''Wallerstein should especially be credited with challenging the territorial compartmentalization of previous theories. For Wallerstein, “world-system” not only denotes a geographical area in which a particular economic model—capitalism, to be precise—is feasible, it also incorporates material and labor force inputs from semi-peripheral and peripheral areas as indispensible for capitalism’s emergence. Logically this implies the dismantling of territorial fixations of political and economic units; hence Wallerstein is able to penetrate rigid division of “internal” and “external” perspectives of state formation and emergence of capitalism, reconstruct “state” as an outgrowth of capitalist development, and observe the “free flow” of class, state and economic trends across an entire world-system.''Still, world-system theory in Wallerstein’s earlier works leaves much to be desired. Wallerstein was particularly proud of the “holistic”, across-the-system combination of economic, political and social factors. But in explaining particular events of rise and fall of states, he often collapsed back to attributions of particular states. For example, China was not able to take the Western European route to capitalism due to its imperial political structure and early maturation of rationalist culture, and England was blessed with a delicate balance of monarchial power, class relations and geographical advantage. The inconsistency between his ambition and such tactics of explanation raises questions whether Wallerstein indeed had a “holistic” theory of capitalism. The relationship between world-system theory and traditional Marxism, which became one of Wallerstein’s major antagonists, is also intriguing. Wallerstein apparently followed Marxist historical materialism in emphasizing of division of labor and production forces as primary explanatory factors, but his assertion of the feasibility of capitalism in a territorial sense, i.e. the “geographical” nature of capitalism was premised upon geography as part of, or even more radically the true “bearer” of the “material reality” of historical materialism, a point which traditional Marxists could hardly accept.

Wallerstein's work has had an enormous influence on the social sciences and historical scholarship. This book is the first volume, and is still fresh, insightful and full of fascinating insights even after 40 years of additional research have added a lot to our understanding of the period he analyzes.Although the book is primarily a meta-empirical work (re-interpreting the findings of secondary sources), its most significant innovation is theoretical: the concept of the world-system, and the resulting insight that differential development is a necessary feature in the rise of modern capitalism - not a bug. This theory has been greatly disputed, but is still a key reference point in macro-historical debates, and the author has added a very valuable new introduction in which he responds to critics.The book is to be lauded for its valuable combination of great attention to detail in each of the many areas it analyses, with a broad view of historical change. However, the melding of these two levels is executed very poorly in terms of the book's overall organization, making it extremely difficult to read. Neither the division between the chapters nor their internal structure seems to make much sense, and the writer continually refers to issues he has previously discussed, that are very difficult to locate - even with the Kindle's search function!This is particularly vexing in light of the fact that the overall argument and ideas are not at all confused or disorganized. This book sometimes feels like a coherent work which was shattered to pieces and re-assembled by an only partially competent editor.As the five stars indicate, I still warmly recommend this book, which is well-worth the effort.

This is the famous "tome" - Wallerstein's massive work, a benchmark for serious historians and theorists of the international system and incontestably a classic whether you agree with Wallerstein's thesis or not. Heavy on documentation, so it's not for the light reader or those looking for a page turner, but engrossing and even illuminating if you are able to give it quality time, whatever the (mostly justified) reams of academic critique of it. Wallerstein's central thesis is that the whole world was enfolded into a European-dominated world system in the 16th century, positioning all regions even before they became modern states into relations between the "core" (advanced industrializing states) and the "periphery" states, whose politics and economies were permanently reshaped by their role as sources of raw materials and markets for the core. He tracks this history in exhaustive detail and the work has long had a place in studies of global inequality and imperialism, however much it's been dissected and challenged. But no summary here can do justice to the argument or its debate; better to look those up on Google Scholar. Just be aware that this is a five volume set, so if you don't want to spring for all five and you're looking for something specific, you'd better check your citations from it carefully so you don't buy the wrong one (as I did).

The new introduction resumes the recent discussion about the book and the position of left wing critics of capitalism very well. The book shows new facts of the development of capitalism and state.

a brilliant thesis and footnotes galore