Summarizes critical attacks on Immanuel Wallerstein's World Systems approach to history and offers new critical evaluations. Wallerstein argued that an emerging capitalist world economy dominated politics and history from the 16th century to the present. Defines two new approaches, institutional analysis and post colonial cultural theory, that…

By utilizing world systems analysis and dependency theory in world history, ways that students can raise questions and integrate ideas at the high school and undergraduate level are identified. A discussion of the origins and design of the 14th century world system demonstrates how it is set apart from the modern world and how conveying that…