M E M O R A N D U M
TO: WSNers
FROM: Thomas D. Hall, THALL@DEPAUW.EDU 317-658-4519
RE: 10 best books
DATE: December 12, 1996
The lists that have been appearing have been quite good. I would
like to suggest, however, a slightly different approach. Cut the
list somewhat, and supplement it with a few review articles. The
latter can then guide one to the appropriate monographic
literature according to one's interests.
Why the different approach? WST is a book field, where much of
the best work is in detailed world-system analyses of specific
topics, place, and/or times. To single out 4, 5, or 10 best
books would not fully sample the field. I think a better
approach would be to read some of the central works, then sample,
according to interests the more specialized studies. This
strategy would reveal that world-systems work is not so core- or
even euro-centric as is often claimed. Also to see how a world-
system perspective works, it is better to get past the
programmatic statements, and dig into actual detailed analyses of
places and times not discussed in book list.
The books on my list would be:
Wallerstein: MWS, I, II, III
Chase-Dunn: Global Formation
*Arrighi: The Long Twentieth Century
*Sanderson: Civilizations and World-Systems
Chase-Dunn &
Hall: Rise & Demise: Comparing World-Systems
[I include the latter because it summarizes much of the work done
so far on precapitalist world-systems]
*These two are reviewed in the journal issue noted below.
Martin, William G. 1994. "The World-Systems Perspective in
Perspective: Assessing the Attempt to Move Beyond
Nineteenth Century Eurocentric Conceptions." Review
18:2(Spring):145-185.
Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Peter Grimes (1995). "World-Systems
Analysis." Annual Review of Sociology 21:387-417.
Three of the five articles in the newly published special section
of _Sociological Inquiry_ 66:4(Fall 1996) [separate complete
announcement posted separately], summarize much of world-
systems literature and have extensive bibliographies to are
useful in following many topics.
Thomas D. Hall, The World-System Perspective: A Small Sample
from a Large Universe, 440-454
This is my own overview, which complements Martin and Chase-Dunn
& Grimes reviews.
Peter Peregrine, Archaeology and World-Systems Theory, 486-495
This is a good overview of the archaeological literature in and
around world-systems perspective.
Colin Flint and Fred M. Shelley, Structure, Agency and Context:
The Contributions of Geography to World-Systems Analysis,
496-508
This is a good overview of work done by geographers in the world-
system tradition.
Tom Hall
thall@depauw.edu
Department of Sociology
DePauw University
Greencastle, IN 46135
317-658-4519