Session proposal for the II. European Congress in World and Global History, Dresden (Germany), 3-5 July 2008:

Giovanni Arrighi's 'The Long Twentieth Century' revisited.

In 1994 the Italian-American sociologist Giovanni Arrighi published his monumental book 'The Long Twentieth Century. Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times' (Verso). This book was a milestone in the global-historical analysis of the rise of capitalism and an important step forward in the Braudelian-Wallersteinian world-systemic oeuvre.

The Long Twentieth Century traces the epochal shifts in the relationship between capital accumulation and state formation over a 700-year period. It identifies structures and agencies which have shaped the course of world history over the millennium. From this perspective it explains the changing hegemonies of Italian, Dutch, English and American capitalism.

This workshop aims to discuss the impact of the book on nowadays historical-sociological and global research. More in particular we want to discuss the central concepts of the book: 'long centuries' as cycles of accumulation, hegemony and state formation, rise (material expansion) and crisis (financial expansion) within the capitalist system.

We welcome all paper proposals that address the work of Giovanni Arrighi in a critical way.

Proposals are to be sent to (before december 1th):

Eric Vanhaute, Ghent University, Belgium
email: eric.vanhaute@ugent.be