Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century

Giovanni Arrighi

Verso Books, Jan 5, 2009 - Political Science - 418 pages

In the late eighteenth century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the West and the territories it had conquered. In this magisterial new work, Giovanni Arrighi shows how China’s extraordinary rise invites us to reassess radically the conventional reading of The Wealth of Nations. He examines how recent US attempts to create the first truly global empire were conceived to counter China’s spectacular economic success Now America’s disastrous failure in Iraq has made the People’s Republic of China the true winner in the US War on Terror.

China may soon become again the kind of noncapitalist market economy that Smith described, an event that will reconfigure world trade and the global balance of power.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - deblemrc - LibraryThing

Fascinating (if you can get through the more theoretical economic chapters in the beginning) book on the development of capitalism, the great divergence and the return of China in the 21st century as a leading nation.

CASUALTY FIGURES: How Five Men Survived World War One

User Review  - Kirkus

A collective biography of five shell-shocked veterans of trench warfare.Delving into mountains of personal papers, letters and photographs in London's Imperial War Museum, Barrett (Modern Literary and ...

About the author

Giovanni Arrighi (1937–2009) was Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. His books include The Long Twentieth Century, Adam Smith in Beijing, and, with Beverly Silver, Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System. His work has appeared in many publications, including New Left Review—who published an interview on his life-long intellectual trajectory in March–April 2009, and an obituary in Nov–Dec 2009—and there are more accounts on his memorial website.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century
• Author: Giovanni Arrighi
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Verso Books, 2009
• ISBN: 1844672980, 9781844672981
• Length: 418 pages
• Subjects: History / Asia / China; Political Science / Globalization; Political Science / Political Economy