Description
Book SynopsisExplores the historical trajectory of so-called modern globalization. This title challenges the long-held anthropological notion that non-European cultures and people were isolated and static entities before the advent of European colonialism and imperialism.
Trade Review"The work of a powerful theoretical intelligence, but one informed by a lived sense of social realities." * Times Literary Supplement *
"Wolf's intention is to show that European expansion not only transformed the historical trajectory of non-European societies but also reconstituted their historical accounts of their societies before European intervention. . . . His historical sweep and analytic breadth are astounding, and he gives approximately equal weight to historical 'winners' and 'losers.'" * American Journal of Sociology *
"Wolf's empirical knowledge is exceptionally wide. . . . He relies on a skillful selection of phenomena in time and space that are reasonably representative of the totality. . . . The book is very well written and with a profoundly human touch." * Ethnos *
"Wolf has created a history of connection rather than one of segregation. . . . This absorbing and stimulating book . . . provides a convincing and, dare I say, new perspective. . . . By emphasizing a common past, Wolf moves away from weary polarities of active 'white' centre and passive 'non- white' periphery and suggests both a more complex and a more informed sense of the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world." * European Update *
"In this big and important book, Eric Wolf begins and ends with the assertion that anthropology must pay more attention to history. . . . It is with pleasure, then, that one reads a critical analysis that rejects pseudo- historical oppositions and explores with such care the historical processes by which primitive and peasant pasts have become a fundamentally altered primitive, peasant, and proletarian present." * Dialectical Anthropology *
"Wolf's intention is to explain the development and nature of the chains of cause and consequence which linked populations in the post-1400 world. The outcome is a tightly structured and elegant book." * Oceania *
Table of ContentsForeword to the 2010 Edition
Preface (1997)
Preface (1982)
Part One Connections
1 Introduction
2 The World in 1400
3 Modes of Production
4 Europe, Prelude to Expansion
Part Two In Search of Wealth
5 Iberians in America
6 The Fur Trade
7 The Slave Trade
8 Trade and Conquest in the Orient
Part Three Capitalism
9 Industrial Revolution
10 Crisis and Differentiation in Capitalism
11 The Movement of Commodities
12 The New Laborers
Afterword
Bibliographic Notes
Bibliography
Index
