This third volume of Michael Mann's analytical history of social power focuses on the interrelated development of capitalism, nation-states and empires.

Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Power in the 21st Century: Conversations with John Hall (2011), Incoherent Empire (2003) and Fascists (Cambridge, 2004). His book The Dark Side of Democracy (Cambridge, 2004) was awarded the Barrington Moore Award of the American Sociological Association for the best book in comparative and historical sociology in 2006.

1. Introduction; 2. Globalization imperially fractured: the British Empire; 3. America and its empire in the Progressive Era, 1890-1930; 4. Asian empires: fallen dragon, rising sun, 1890-1930; 5. Half-global crisis: World War I; 6. Explaining revolutions: phase I, proletarian revolutions, 1917-23; 7. Half-global crisis: the Great Depression; 8. The New Deal: America shifts left; 9. Varieties of social citizenship in capitalist democracies; 10. The fascist alternative, 1918-45; 11. The Soviet alternative, 1918-45; 12. Japanese imperialism, 1931-45; 13. Explaining the Chinese revolution; 14. The last inter-imperial war and the fall of the fascist alternative, 1939-45; 15. Conclusion.