This is a wonderfully scholarly book that directly engages the latest debates in the field (with footnotes even!) yet wears its erudition lightly. Reilly expertly weaves together political, economic, social, and LOTS of cultural threads, selecting good—and sometimes surprising—case studies for illustration. The text never loses sight of his view of the grand arc of it all, arguing for a series of successive globalizations over at least the last millennium. This text will make a wonderful companion to Reilly’s two-volume document series, which remains a classic in the field.