The Way the Modern World Works: World Hegemony to World Impasse

The title is a bit pompous. The book looks like another regurgitation of already well written world-systems garbage. Surprisingly, though, Peter Taylor has come up with something more readable than Arrighi's "The Long Twentieth Century" and perhaps more theoretically sound. I am currently writing a Masters thesis in political geography, and I was pleasantly surprised when I read this book after a plethora of others by Taylor and Arrighi. Having read a good dozen books on hegemony, this is my favorite one yet. If it weren't for the outrageous price (get it from the library!), it might be the book that would convert other structuralists over to world-systems theory. If you are into geohistorical analysis or hegemonic discourse you must read this book. Kudos to Doctor Taylor! Job well done. (His book "Modernities" was excellent too!)