Social Change

“An extraordinarily comprehensive compilation and integration of everything we know or think we know about the long-term trajectory of human social constructions. Extremely useful and provocative.”
—Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

“This extraordinary book shows how human societies have evolved, not in self-contained groups but from the outside in…. A unique feature of the book is the micro-macro link, interweaving the development of individual self and mind with changes in networks of globalization….Chase-Dunn and Lerro have produced a combination of textbook and masterpiece.”
—Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania

"With a narrative spanning many millennia, this book adds a double analytical edge that makes it special. As we would expect from Chris Chase-Dunn, his world-systems analysis is majestically done but with a new twist that brings individuals to the fore. This is achieved by teaming up with a sociohistorical psychologist, Bruce Lerro, to integrate the changing nature of people into the story. The resulting combination of system and self is truly ground breaking."

—Peter Taylor, Professor of Human Geography, Northumbria University

"There is absolutely nothing like this extraordinary resource for courses studying long-term globalization. All kudos to the authors for pulling off this achievement.

—William R. Thompson, Indiana University

"In this remarkable book, Chase-Dunn and Lerro have accomplished what no other writer on world system dynamics has ever done: A complete history of the evolution of human societies from nomadic hunting and gathering to the present from the perspective of inter-societal dynamics, or world-system processes. It is both a book filled with substantive descriptions and analytical distinctions that make a difference in how social scientists and historians are to understand the long-term evolution of societies from their beginnings to the present. Moreover, it is filled with topics not often covered within the world systems empirical tradition, such as the cognitive changes that accompany movement from simple to ever-more complex sociocultural formations, the biological bases of social evolution, the relationship between history and evolution, the public sphere in early modern systems, the rise of individualism, and so many topics that, at first glance seem tangential but, on second glance, are fundamental to understanding societies and inter-societal systems from their early beginning among settled hunter-gathers to the current global era.

The writing is intended for all audience-students, professional scholars, and lay persons alike-but the analysis is anything but simplistic. The authors have accomplished something that is very difficult to bring of: a comprehensive, in-depth, and analytically sophisticated argument that is easy to read and understand. This is a book that I will keep handy on my shelf as a constant reference for the fascinating historical details along with sophisticated theoretical analysis of key dynamic of long-term social change in human societies."

—Jonathan H. Turner, University Professor, University of California-Riverside