Giovanni Arrighi

Interview conducted and transcribed by
Kevan Harris
Princeton University

Giovanni Arrighi (1937-2009) spent his life thinking and writing about what he saw on his well-traveled
path: liberation movements in Africa, worker rebellion in Italy, global inequality between North and South, the military and financial limits of US power, and the economic rise of China. In his many articles and books, including an unplanned trilogy on the origins and workings of global capitalism, Arrighi grappled with the complexities of history and the limitations of existing economic and political theories. This rethinking was fully on display in his final book, Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century. Although I interviewed Arrighi on May 18, 2008, several months before the financial meltdown in global markets, his prescient statements are relevant for the crises we face today. Arrighi passed away in June 2009. His scholarly and intellectual tradition continues on at the Giovanni Arrighi Center for Global Studies at The Johns Hopkins University.

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