The Long Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

This work traces the epochal shifts in the relatiohsip between capital accumulation and state formation over a 700-year period. The author synthesizes social theory, comparative history and historical narrative in this account of the structures and agencies which have shaped the course of world history over the millennium. Borrowing from Braudel, Giovanni Arrighi argues that the history of capitalism has unfolded as a succession of "long centuries" - ages during which a hegemonic power deploying a novel combination of economic and political networks secured control over an expanding world-economic space. But this is not simply history confined to the "longue duree". The modest beginnings, rise and violent unravelling of the links forged between capital, state power and geopolitics by hegemonic classes and states are explored. Arrighi argues that a specific logic governed the concentration of power and eventual surrender of control over the strategic sites of commercial, financial and political power. From this perspective, he explains the changing fortunes of Florentine, Venetian, Genoese, Dutch, English and, finally, American capitalism. The book concludes with an examination of the forces which have shaped and are now poised to undermine America's world power. Giovanni Arrighi is the author of "The Geometry of Imperialism", and the co-author of "Antisystemic Movements" and "Dynamics of Global Crisis".