Re: This book announcement: I'm so tired of this fashion for small
scale, narrow interest works!
> > 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
>
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