<em>The Long Twentieth Century</em> traces the epochal shifts in the relationship between capital accumulation and state formation over a 700-year period.<br /><br />Building on the work of Fernand Braudel, Arrighi argues that the history of capitalism has unfolded as a succession of "long centuries"--ages during which a hegemonic power deploying a novel combination of economic and political networks secured control over an expanding world-economic space. The book concludes with an examination of the forces which have shaped and are now poised to undermine America's world power.<br /><br />Now a classic of history and sociology, the book is fully updated in the light of recent events. <br />