The study of history goes in waves. Its fragmentation during the past twenty years has raised the profile of gender, culture, ethnicity and identity, the meaning of language, and the primacy of diversity and individualism. The time has surely come for a revival of political economy as a subject for historians. After all, we are now living through a time of great turbulence and uncertainty, which has spawned new forms of gross inequality in power, wealth, and income, as well as the rise of an authoritarian and imperialist state that seeks to bring democracy and free markets—by force when necessary—to countries throughout the world.
