"Providing a unique, empirically based perspective on the past and future development of globalization as a long-term process emerging in different parts of the world, this book puts current changes in a historical context in a systematic fashion, unpacking the global political, economic, social, and cultural implications of this change. It traces the resemblance of past commercial networks with emerging digital networks and contrasts them with industrial production systems." -- Book jacket.

This book offers a unique perspective on current changes. Describing globalization as a long-term process of intertwined technological, economic, political, and cultural changes, the author identifies distinct phases in the global system development, and concludes that the pattern of change continues even with the rise of new digital technologies.