Global History

A View from the South

Samir Amin

Responding to the need to take a fresh look at world history, hitherto dominated by Eurocentric ideologues and historians in their attempt to justify the nature and character of modern capitalism, Samir Amin looks in this book at the ancient world system and how it has influenced the development of the modern world. It also analyses the origin and nature of modern globalisation and the challenges it presents in achieving socialism.

Amin examines the role played by Central Asia in determining the course of world history as well as the different roads taken by Europe and China. The book looks closely at a theme that has been primordial to his contribution to political and economic thought: the question of unequal development.

This is a refreshing and creative work that is necessary reading for anyone wanting to understand the real process of history.

Contents

Introduction
1. The ancient world system versus the modern capitalist world systems
2. The role of central Asia in the ancient tributary system
3. Capitalism and the global system
4. History conceived as an eternal cycle review
5. Contrasting Europe and the Chinese world; accumulation through dispossession
6. Russia in the global system, geography or history
Notes
Index

About the Author

Samir Amin is an economist currently based in Dakar, Senegal, where he is the director of Forum du Tiers Monde (Third World Forum). Amin is also the chair of the World Forum for Alternatives. He is one of the best-known thinkers of his generation, both in development theory as well as in the relativistic–cultural critique of the social sciences. He is widely published, with titles including Spectres of Capitalism: A Critique of Current Intellectual Fashions, Beyond US Hegemony: Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World, A Life Looking Forward: Memoirs of an Independent Marxist and Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society.