After the Year of Africa: W. E. B. Du Bois, Immanuel Wallerstein, and the Sociology of Decolonization

After the Year of Africa: W. E. B. Du Bois, Immanuel Wallerstein, and the Sociology of Decolonization

by Sam Chian Immanuel Wallerstein is widely remembered today as the architect of world-systems analysis—a sprawling and ambitious framework that recast modern history around capitalism’s long-term, geographical dynamics, rather than the short-term, nation-bound focus that had dominated much of social science. Yet before reaching international acclaim, Wallerstein’s early career centered on trying to make sense of African decolonization. For exam…