BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
On May 5th Blackwell is publishing SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS: A GENERAL THEORY OF
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, by Stephen K. Sanderson. This book articulates a
comprehensive, formal theory of social evolution and applies it to the last
10,000 years of human history and prehistory by looking at the most fundamental
social transformations over this long period: the Neolithic Revolution, the
rise of civilization and the state, the rise of modern capitalism in western
Europe and Japan in the sixteenth century, and the evolution of the modern
world over the past 500 years. An attempt to predict the near-term future by
projecting the broad evolutionary trends of the modern era is made in the
penultimate chapter.
Contents:
1. Evolutionary Materialism: A General Theory of Historical Development
2. The Neolithic Revolution
3. The Rise of Civilization and the State
4. Agrarian States and their Evolutionary Dynamics
5. The Capitalist Revolution and the Beginnings of the Modern World
6. The Evolution of the Modern World, I: The Expanding and Evolving
Modern World-System
7. The Evolution of the Modern World, II: The Emergence of the Institutions
of Modernity
8. The Question of Progress
9. The Evolving Future
10. Theoretical Reprise
452 pages; ISBN 1-55786-403-9 (cloth, $59.95), 1-55786-404-7 (paperback,
$21.95). Copies may be ordered from Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main St.,
Cambridge, MA 02142 (USA), or 108 Cowley Rd., Oxford, UK OX4 1JF. Examination
copies for potential class adoption are available.
Prepublication reviews:
"A highly readable, even exciting, presentation of the basic case for
evolutionary transformation throughout world history. It summarizes clearly,
fairly, and intelligently the major viewpoints and puts its own forward quite
persuasively. It should be read by students and scholars alike."
-- Immanuel Wallerstein
"A major contribution to comparative and evolutionary social science.
Sanderson's main argument is that an evolutionary theory, once cleansed of
methodological errors, is needed to provide an understanding of social change
over the long run. Sanderson uses insights from the world-systems perspective
and from cultural materialism to develop his own theory of societal evolution.
His theoretical approach is original and compelling."
-- Christopher Chase-Dunn
"Sanderson's book is itself an evolutionary development from major lines of
sociological explanation of world history, cross-breeding the materialist
evolutionism and conflict theory of Marvin Harris and Gerhard Lenski with the
world-system theory of Immanuel Wallerstein. Sanderson opens up an array of
fresh insights on topics such as precapitalist world-systems, the independent
development of capitalism in Japan and Europe, and the rise and demise of state
socialism. The attempt to extrapolate the future on the basis of this theory
is striking. In this theoretical lineage, Sanderson's work is the latest stage
of evolutionary advance."
-- Randall Collins