Re: Race, Nation, and Gender in world-historical perspective

Greetings,

Thanks to all those who have responded to my posting.
The more I look into this it seems that I'll need to
be innovative in my selctions.  World Systems has an
interesting framework to work with as a starting
point. The problem, however, it's just the beginning. 
Much more work, empirical and historical, needs to be
done in helping us "macro world-historical" people
become more efficient in thinking through such issues
like race, gender and modernity from a
world-historical perspective.   

The article by Quijano and Wallerstein some years back
did an excellent job to initiate the process which
Wallerstein also continued with Balibar in their
collection of essays "Race, Nation, and Class:
Ambiguous Identities".  But from what I can tell,
while the seeds have been planted, there needs to be
more vigorous effort on our part to bring the fruits
to market.  

This is where we may need to take notice of people
like Partha Chatterjee, Chandra Mohanty, Edward Said,
Frederic Cooper and many others working in sister
fields.  There is a book that just came out last year
which I have yet to read by Howard Winant called "The
World is a Ghetto."  From what it says on the back
cover, it looks uite good: 

"The World is a Ghetto offers a comprehensive account
of the meaning of race from the mercantilist economy
of the 16th century to the global capitalism of today.
 Drawing upon five centuries of global history to
explain the current dynamics of racism in the United
States, Brazil, Europe and South Africa. Winant
suggests that race must be understood in a global
context by showing how economic development, labor
processes, the ideals of democracy and popular
sovereignty, patterns of social stratification, and
the very concepts of social and individual identity we
take for granted today, all evolved from modernity's
profound and prolonged encounter with race."

Now lets see if he gives us what he promises.  I'd
like to do the same for gender and nation, which are
no doubt interconnected with race and the rise of the
modern world-system.  Any more suggestions will be
welcomed.

Thanks,
Khaldoun 



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