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.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Quotation Credits
Prologue to the 2011 Edition
Introduction: On the study of social change
1. Medieval prelude
2. The new European division of labor: c. 1450-1640
3. The absolute monarchy and statism
4. From Seville to Amsterdam: the failure of empire
5. The strong core-states: class-formation and international
commerce
6. The European world-economy: periphery versus external arena
7. Theoretical reprise
Bibliography
Index

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.