The fall of communism, the emergence of 'the information age,' and the expansion of economic globalism are the points of departure for this new edition of Chase-Dunn's landmark book. The author shows how these seemingly new developments fit with earlier patterns of global formation and change, extending the influential model that drew wide attention to this award-winning book. The new edition also evaluates recent major studies of the modern world-system and assesses the implications for the future of the contemporary system.

"In this impressive book, Chase-Dunn . . . explains in masterly fashion the political and social factors that make the capitalist system so good at producing wealth." - Times Higher Education

"The second edition of Global Formation brings us doubly up to date on Chase-Dunn's contributions to the joint effort." - International Sociology Review

"An updated edition extends a world-systems structural modelof the world economy to take into account events that have occurred since 1985, including the emergence of the information age, the expansion of economic globalism, & the fall of communism....." - Sociological Abstracts, April 2000

"An updated edition extends a world-systems structural modelof the world economy to take into account events that have occurred since 1985, including the emergence of the information age, the expansion of economic globalism, & the fall of communism." - Sociological Abstracts, April 2000