This book is the fundamental starting point for the study of continuity and change in the global social, economic and political system over the longest historical term. Bringing together eminent interdisciplinary scholars, World System History considers the nature of social continuity back through history, resulting in a book which cuts across boundaries in social science and deals with at least 5000 years of the human past in a truly global perspective, No other volume offers so co-ordinated a picture of the issues or the prospects for the unified study of world system history. The kind of transdisciplinary cooperation needed to make sense of our complex world is made clear through a range of carefully co-ordinated and interactive contributions by archaeologists, anthropologists, students of economics, history, political science and sociology. This extraordinary book shows that in order to understand contemporary issues we must study the long term history of the world system. It will be a vital overview of perspective on the history of the world system for all graduates and researcher in a variety of fields such as international political economy, world history and sociology. Andrew Bosworth University of Washington, USA Christopher Chase-Dunn Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Sing C. Chew Humboldt State University, California, USA