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Historical Capitalism with Capitalist Civilization
In this short, highly readable book Immanuel Wallerstein provides a condensation of the central ideas of his monumental study of capitalism as an integrated, historical entity: The Modern World-System. In developing an anatomy of capitalism over the past five centuries, Wallerstein traces those elements that have constantly changed and evolved, while giving equal attention
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Paperback, 168 pages
Published
January 17th 1996
by Verso
(first published January 4th 1996)
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Still reading this one, so perhaps premature to give it a review. This more detailed and sometime laborious work is a focused on capitalism as a system. Some may find it overly dry as it reads like an economics text, with almost a techniqual feel in some parts. But in short W cuts to the meat of various forces at work in capitalism historically. Some of the arguements do not seem fully developed for reasons of space, but at just over 100pg its not a difficult undertaking. Also included is the es
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A swift, lucid narrative of just what's happened these last 500 years. Wallerstein writes with wit, clarity, and concision, and his analysis swoops through time gloriously. Also admirable: his clear explanation that though Marx was a great thinker, Marx himself recognized that he was a man of his time, and that thinkers in the future would need to keep up the analysis and develop understanding of the ways Capital always continues to mutate. Wallerstein has thought, deeply, about this stuff for s
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In these two deceptively short essays, Wallerstein lays out what he believes to be the overriding principles governing the development of capitalism as a socio-economic phenomenon. He writes very broadly and vaguely, which is unsurprising given that, as he places the beginnings of "historical capitalism" in the fifteenth century, we are talking about a very long-term process which has undergone various adjustments. Unfortunately, I found the book's broadness to be a weakness, when I was hoping i
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Wallerstein provides a very cursory look to the historical trends and motivations of capitalism. This book is a good introduction to some basic economic history, as it focuses more broadly on themes, but provides little in the way of depth. My main critique is that he doesn't cite any sources for his arguments and relies heavily on metaphor (often Biblical) to make his points. He does call for an ethical reevaluation of the current system in a future economic model and is considered among the cl
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A short but ambitious book that offers sweeping and often penetrating analyses of capitalism as a historical phenomenon dating back to 16C. A very readable intro to Wallerstein's famed world-systems analysis, whose methodology purports to transcend structures and divisions of knowledge inherited from the 19C. (this book does not really deal with the latter point concerning structures of knowledge. For a concise intro to that, I recommend reading Chapter 1 of Wallerstein's another book, "World-Sy
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In his concise and revelatory book “Historical Capitalism: With Capitalist Civilization” Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, Director of the Fernand Braudel Center at the State University of New York, offers a deep and well-grounded analysis of the Western economic system. He studies its historical origins over the past five centuries and explores social mechanisms and institutes of advancing capitalism. His work highlights key development stages of a unified world market and a framework of foreign tr
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Marx - 'Religion is the opiate of the masses'
Raymond Aron - 'Marxism is opiate of the intellectuals'
Immanuel Wallerstein - 'Truth is the opiate of all (modernism)'
A fairly easy read, but with a lot of points that require contemplation.
Raymond Aron - 'Marxism is opiate of the intellectuals'
Immanuel Wallerstein - 'Truth is the opiate of all (modernism)'
A fairly easy read, but with a lot of points that require contemplation.
Aug 30, 2015
Sinan Öner
added it
I read Wallerstein's book, I liked.
I really love the cover of this book. I remember this being sold to me as a kind of contemporary Marxism. I have positive feelings about this book, but not much else
A very important book to read in terms of the economic chaos of the moment.
i am forever indebted to him.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| The Liberal Polit...: "Historical Capitalism with Capitalist Civilization" by Immanuel Wallerstein - general discussion | 1 | 13 | Mar 01, 2014 01:31PM |
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is a scholar of politics, sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst. His bimonthly commentaries on world affairs are syndicated.
More about Immanuel Wallerstein...
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