Spanning ten thousand years of social change, this book examines the ways in which world-systems evolve. A comparative study of stateless societies, state-based regional empires, and the modern global capitalist political economy, it reveals the underlying processes at work in the reproduction and transformation of social, economic, and political s

Christopher Chase-Dunn is professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Thomas D. Hall is Lester M. Jones Professor of Sociology at DePauw University. Christopher Chase-Dunn is professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Thomas D. Hall is Lester M. Jones Professor of Sociology at DePauw University.