"A tour de force that brings together and makes sense of a wealth of diverse historical studies which often seem to contradict each other...an extremely formidable achievement."
New York Times Book Review
"A heroic and impressive achievement. . . . an exhilarating and satisfying book. . . . it explains more convincingly and sympathetically than anything I have read hitherto the actual process of economic and social development on a European-world scale."
American Journal of Sociology
"A remarkable book. The author has a theory and uses it to explain the structure and course of public events in Europe and its trans-oceanic annexes in the sixteenth century. The effect is dazzling and dizzying."<br />
Societas
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
—Fernand Braudel, author of The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II
“It isn't just history or economics or sociology or political science. It is all of these in combination and thus places all of these fields on a new plane of understanding, It is a book that people will have to deal with, argue with, cite, learn by in order to make their own points....In sum, this is a most impressive work. I can hardly wait for the other volumes."
—Eric R. Wolf, author of Europe and the People without History