The Structure of World History

This book is an attempt to re-evaluate the history of social formations from the perspective of modes of exchange – a product of the effort to comprehend and transcend today's Capital-Nation-State system.

Systematically re-reading Marx's version of world history, Karatani shifts the focus of critique from modes of production to modes of exchange. He examines the pooling of resources characteristic of nomadic tribes, the gift exchange systems developed after the adoption of settled agriculture, the exchange of obedience for protection that emerged with the birth of the state, and the commodity exchanges that characterize capitalism, and he emphasizes the return of gift exchange as a future mode of exchange. According to Karatani, the best way to understand this final stage, which signifies the transcendence of the current Capital-Nation-State trinity system, is through Kant's writings on eternal peace.

"This is not the kind of world history we are accustomed to reading from historians," says Karatani. "My aim is to provide a transcendental critique of the relationships between various fundamental modes of exchange. That is, to structurally explain the three great changes that have occurred in world history. Thus, we can pursue a fourth great change, a transition to a world republic."