Antisystemic Movements

Class Struggle in a World-Systems Frame

Antisystemic Movements brings together three major world-systems thinkers—Giovanni Arrighi, Terence K. Hopkins, and Immanuel Wallerstein—in a focused collection on resistance, social organization, and the changing shape of opposition under capitalism. Rather than treating movements as isolated political events, the book asks how they emerge from the structure of the modern world-system and why their ambitions so often collide with the boundaries of the nation-state.

The essays track a long historical arc: from the early formation of resistance under capitalism, through the rise of labor and national movements, to the symbolic turning point of 1968 and the possibility of newer transnational forms of struggle. The result is a sharply analytical book that links political action to larger historical forces.

What the Book Explores

• the relationship between class, status-group, and political organization
• the dilemmas faced by older antisystemic movements
• the limits of state-centered struggle
• the emergence of newer, more international forms of resistance

For Readers of Political Economy and Social Theory

This is a thoughtful read for anyone interested in world-systems analysis, labor history, revolutionary politics, or the structural pressures that shape collective action. It is not a lightweight introduction; it is a conceptually demanding book that rewards careful reading and historical curiosity.

If you want a serious discussion of how anti-capitalist and national movements are formed, constrained, and reimagined across time, this collection remains a distinctive and influential place to start.