Immanuel Wallerstein
Sociologist and Economic Historian
About Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein (1930–2019) was a renowned American sociologist and historian, best known for his development of world-systems Analysis. Wallerstein’s academic work focused on the historical development of global capitalism, arguing that the modern world-system emerged in the 16th century and was characterized by a division between the core, periphery, and semi-periphery countries. His influential multi-volume work, The Modern World-System, redefined how scholars understood global history, economics, and political power, emphasizing that nations do not operate in isolation but are part of an interconnected system where wealth and power are unevenly distributed.
A Selection of His Books
Want to see the full book list? Check the book archive.
We can tentatively credit capitalist civilization with a positive, if very geographically uneven, record in the struggle against disease.”
Commentaries
- Commentary No. 499, June 15, 2019
U.S. superdiplomat Henry Kissinger is famously said to have asked, “Who do I call if I call Europe?” The question is repeatedly [...]
- Commentary No. 498, June 1, 2019
Two leading actors in the modern world systems – Donald Trump and Theresa May of England – sound like broken records. They [...]
- Commentary No. 497, May 15, 2019
We all want to know what the future portends for us about anything important. We all tend to believe the future will [...]
- Commentary No. 496, May 1, 2019
On April 15, 2019, a fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame was a tragedy for people all across the world, and [...]
- Commentary No. 495, April 15, 2019
Epistemology, especially statistics, is the study of how we measure things and how we know if our measurements are correct. Ontology is [...]
This is the end; this is the beginning