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. -- Susan Strange * Times Higher Education *
[T]he major statement to date of American world-systems theory and research. -- Walter L. Goldfrank, University of California, Santa Cruz
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 *
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 *

Christopher Chase-Dunn is professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University.