Preface

Summary

A subtitle for this book of essays might have been “Apart from the Mainstream.” My work has developed apart from the dominant currents of thought in international studies. The approach I have called historical dialectic has for long been outside the mainstream of social science, especially in America. Latterly, I have sensed an interest, or at least a curiosity, among graduate students and younger colleagues, for exploring alternatives to what have been the prevailing theoretical frameworks, and for breaking down the barriers erected by consecrated academic divisions. Perhaps the essays collected here will help to encourage that continuing search.

The initiative for this book came from graduate students. Many of my previously published pieces were scattered in diverse journals and books, making them difficult to assemble for study or teaching. Also some students and colleagues, who found my Production, Power, and World Order (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987) a demanding read, thought my essays were a more attractive access to my thinking.

The idea for the book and the pressure for me to actually see it through came from several of my recent graduate students. The principal instigator has been Timothy J. Sinclair, now teaching international political economy at the University of Warwick, who was also prepared to do most of the work to bring the project to fruition.