Key essays from the "prolific, provocative, 'big-picture theorist'" (<I>Booklist</I>) and originator of world-systems analysis. Immanuel Wallerstein is one of the most innovative social scientists of his generation. Past president of the International Sociological Association, he has had a major influence on the development of social thought throughout the world, and his books are translated into every major language. <I>The Essential Wallerstein</I> brings together for the first time the full range of his scholarship.This comprehensive collection of essays offers a unique overview of this seminal thinker's work, showing the development of his thought: from his groundbreaking research on contemporary African politics and social change, to his study of the modern world-system, to his current essays on the new structures of knowledge emerging from the crisis of the capitalist world-economy. His singular focus on the way in which change in one part of the globe affects the whole is all the more relevant as the world grows increasingly interdependent. <I>The Essential Wallerstein</I>is an ideal introduction to the extensive body of work from a thinker who helped introduce globally sensitive thinking to the field of social science.This is the first in a series of Readers bringing together the key works of major figures in the social sciences.