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Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read that Needs a long attention span!
Review: I agree to the previous comments about this book being hard to read, and it is indeed for scholars, hence the price!I wouldn't go so far as calling myself a scholar, but I am certainly "in" on the subject of the book, and enjoy the arguments presented, especially ones by Gunder Frank/Gills and Chase-Dunn. For those who might find it hard to read and comprehend, you can start by reading basic theories that founded this book, works like The Colonizers Model of the World from Late James Blaut or ReOrient of Gunder Frank (although that is not easy to read either, but Frank has a great treasury of vocabulary!). Even reading Fernand Braudel's History of Civilization might help, although he is still out there in the realm of Eurocentrism for this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read that Needs a long attention span!
Review: I agree to the previous comments about this book being hard to read, and it is indeed for scholars, hence the price! I wouldn't go so far as calling myself a scholar, but I am certainly "in" on the subject of the book, and enjoy the arguments presented, especially ones by Gunder Frank/Gills and Chase-Dunn. For those who might find it hard to read and comprehend, you can start by reading basic theories that founded this book, works like The Colonizers Model of the World from Late James Blaut or ReOrient of Gunder Frank (although that is not easy to read either, but Frank has a great treasury of vocabulary!). Even reading Fernand Braudel's History of Civilization might help, although he is still out there in the realm of Eurocentrism for this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good content, hard to read
Review: I like reading history. I enjoy with it. I am not a professional historian. In the last few years I have tried and read books offering a broad scope and general overviews of history (you may well say that globalization has reached history too). I daresay that the technical content of this book is excellent. But unless you really like the technical side of global history do no read it. It is written by scholars for scholars. I have rated three stars, taken into account that, because of its content, I should rate it five stars, but if I think of its readability, it would be one [there are exceptions: after all, it is written by 18 different persons-]. As they explain "this volume is designed as a fundamental starting point for the transdisciplinary study of continuity and change in the global social, economic, and political system over the longest of historical term"; and "these papers were originally presented at a special conference that took place in 1995 at the University of lund in Sweden. They were subsequently refined in light of the interaction made possible by that meeting". Which books would I recommend then you to read? Well, that, of course, depends so much on each person's tastes! Kindly let me reccommend a few ones: "The Rise of the West" by William H. McNeill, "Origins of the state and civilization", by Elman R. Service, "The Great Divergence", by Kenneth Pomeranz, "The dynamics of Global Dominance. European overseas empires 1415-1980", and, above all, "The History of Government", by S.E. Finer.
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