Book reviews

Abstract

The significance of these two books—each drawn from a set of lectures—is that they represent a concerted effort by two respected academicians to grapple with a phenomenon that is world-wide in scope and has had serious consequences for Africa's economic development. For anyone interested in the development of capitalism as a socio-economic system, these two books provide a recommended and interesting sequence. What Wallerstein calls historical capitalism is "that concrete, time-bounded, space-bounded integrated locus of production activities within which the endless accumulation has been the economic objective or 'law' that has governed or prevailed in fundamental economic activity" (p. 18) and all other aspects of social life. The fundamental basis of this system is the commodification of everything in society, but especially labor. This historically allowed capitalism to evolve a system of accumulation which hithertofore had not existed, i.e., to get labor to produce surplus value which then would be reinvested for further accumulation. In a sweeping but credible generalization, Wallerstein asserts that: