Building the European research area Book

Arrighi was one of the leading figures in that leftist mixture of economic and political analysis known as 'world-system theory', pioneered by Immanuel Wallerstein and-I would imagine-much indebted to the Annales. Adam Smith in Beijing is the third instalment in an informal trilogy covering the spread and transformation of Capitalism, particularly focused on the XXth century.

Provocative as it may sound, the title actually captures the essence of the book: the author contends throughout the book that China, if it can become the leader and model for the Global South it seems bound to become, will soon replace the U.S. China's developmental path, which he reads in an extended historical context, he takes to reflect much more accurately than Britain did in the XIXth century, the prescriptions of Adam Smith.
Not unlike Jerry Muller's Adam Smith in His Time and Ours: Designing the Decent Society though from a markedly left-wing (anti-imperialist, in particular) perspective, Arrighi, in the book's first part, endeavours to salvage Adam Smith from the claims of free-market fundamentalists. Calling upon Schumpeter and Marx, whose account of capitalism as creative destruction he contrasts with Smith's defense of 'mere' markets, as a tool for governing rather than an end in itself. As Braudel once did, Arrighi, and Smith in his account, in fact defend the markets, as a nationally bound and balanced institution, against the emergence of capitalism proper. Whereas the markets are largely agrarian and depend on the national population and its wealth, capitalism instead periodically migrate toward ever larger host organisms, leading nations toward expansion at the expense of the 'optimisation' of their home-markets.

It is refreshing to find to read such unapologetically 'grand' narration at the world-scale, covering in some depth the twin monsters (Behemoth and Leviathan!) of economics and politics, at the national and international level, accounting for social movements, ecology, technology and culture, all with a steady hand and a profuse bibliography.
This, however, does not make for an easy read: this reader, very much ignorant of economics and largely unschooled in the intricacies of international politics, sometimes found himself convinced he had bit more than he could chew. The economic section of the second part (concerned with the downfall of US authority) was particularly difficult, and aside from the urgent realisation that I needed to upgrade my understanding of financial and fiscal history, I am not sure I have gotten much out of it.
The scope and mastery of Arrighi's account also have the 'unintended consequence' of underlining what is absent from his account: changes in information circulation, or legal frameworks, for example, which in the case of China's eventful transformation have probably had a crucial influence.
In the comfortably retrospective position of 2018, it is also, unfortunately, clear that Hu Jintao's commitment to a 'New Socialist Countryside' was quite as likely to be an accident on the capitalist road, as to be a legacy of China's revolutionary tradition. As consumerism takes control throughout the layers of Chinese society, it also seems unclear how long the benefits of its 'industrious revolution' will last. Furthermore, Xi Jinping's sometimes forceful usage of economic diplomacy might indicate that China's approach was or became purely pragmatic, rather than in any committed sense concerned with 'the global south'.
Finally, a contention I am sure a more competent reader would be easily able to dispel, I was surprised by Arrighi's insistence on Smith as an apostle of the social (as opposed to technical) division of labour. Having since started reading The Wealth of Nations, I find it very difficult to interpret Smith's prescriptions as anything but a precursor of taylorism. I will have to finish the book, and probably read a little more on the subject before I can decide firmly whether, as Arrighi seems to contend, Smith was indeed defending small(ish) specialised production units with a high degree of flexibility.