"Barry Buzan combines the abstract approach of social science with the narrative approach of historians to convey a living sense of the human story across three eras. His detailed assessment of the material conditions and social structures of humankind transcend Eurocentrism and open the way to understanding global society"--

Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has authored, co-authored and edited over thirty books and 170 chapters and articles including Re-imagining International Relations (with Amitav Acharya, 2021) and The Making of Global International Relations (with Amitav Acharya, 2019).

1. Introduction; Part I. Laying the Foundations for a Global Society: 2. Pre-prelude ¿ the hunter-gatherer era; 3. Prelude ¿ the era of conglomerate agrarian/pastoralist empires 2310BC to 1800AD; Part II. The Transition to Modernity and the Making of Global Society: 4. Material conditions; 5a. Social structure I ¿ CAPE instructions carried forward into the transition; 5b. Social structure II ¿ institutions new with the transition; 6. Where are we within the transition from CAPE to modernity; Part III. Deep Pluralism: More Transition or Modernity Proper?: 7. Material conditions; 8. Social structure; Part IV. Conclusions: 9. Conclusions.