journal: Review
publisher: The Fernand Braudel Center
edited: Immanuel Wallerstein
subject: economics, economic history
other: quarterly, US$28.00 per annum
contact: review@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu
_Review_ is a quarterly journal "for the study of economies, historical
systems, and civilizations", "committed to the pursuit of a perspective
which recognizes the primacy of analyses of economies over long
historical time and large space, the holism of the socio-historical
process, and the transitory (heuristic) nature of theories" (to quote
the full name of its publisher and its editorial policy). Coupled with
a liberal publication policy, this allows room for a wide range of
articles, ranging from case studies of fairly narrow topics and
restricted regions and times to broader analyses of global history and
world-systems theory. Ideologically _Review_ has a "left" bias, but
its primary focus is not political.
The four issues of Volume XVIII (1995) run to 678 pages of text.
Number one is a special issue on "labour unrest in the world economy,
1870-1990". The other issues are more varied, so I describe in detail
the contents of issue number four, which contains five articles. The
first is a critique of Samuel Huntingdon's definition of "civilization"
(in a debate in _Foreign Affairs_), arguing that he failed to
acknowledge the context of his work, in particular alternative
conceptions of civilization derived from Hegel, Toynbee, and Braudel
and Wallerstein. The second is a study of the incorporation of the
Colorado delta area of Baja California into the periphery of the
world-economy between 1900 and 1910, a study which, despite its narrow
geographical and temporal focus, successfully connects to wider
perspectives. The third is a time-series study of development
dependency in Mexico and Brazil which attempts to combine quantitative
comparative analysis with historical studies of individual nations.
The fourth, based on interviews with Cuban and Mexican left
intellectuals, surveys changing attitudes to national autonomy in a
world dominated by global capitalism. The final article (in Spanish,
with an English summary, illustrating _Review's_ custom of printing the
occasional foreign language article) is about the move away from
universalist movements of resistance to more particularist ones.
As a generalist I find some of the material in _Review_ narrow, but I
usually end up reading most of the articles in each issue. Though my
personal preference is for monographs, there is nothing like an
interdisciplinary journal for broadening one's perspective. _Review_
is not expensive (there is a very good discount rate for subscribers
outside the OECD) and I will renew my subscription.
--%T Review %E Immanuel Wallerstein %I The Fernand Braudel Center %C Binghamton, New York %O quarterly, US$28.00 per annum %G ISSN 0147-9032 %K journal, economics, economic history %U review@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu
6 April 1996
------------------------------------------------ Copyright (c) 1996 Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au) http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/ ------------------------------------------------