This is the first part of a three-volume work on the nature of power in human societies. In it, Michael Mann identifies the four principal 'sources' of power as being control over economic, ideological, military, and political resources. He examines the interrelations between these in a narrative history of power from Neolithic times, through ancient Near Eastern civilisations, the classical Mediterranean age, and medieval Europe, up to just before the Industrial Revolution in England. Rejecting the conventional monolithic concept of a 'society', Dr. Mann's model is instead one of a series of overlapping, intersecting power networks. He makes this model operational by focusing on the logistics of power - how the flow of information, manpower, and goods is controlled over social and geographical space-thereby clarifying many of the 'great debates' in sociological theory. The present volume offers explanations of the emergence of the state and social stratification.

本书的时期是从1945年到2011年，聚焦于主导二战后全球秩序的三个主要力量：资本主义、民族国家与世界剩下的主要帝国即美国。在这个时期，资本主义、民族国家与帝国彼此相互作用，交织在一起并转型。曼的核心观点是，全球化不仅仅是一个简单的过程，因为有社会权力四个来源的全球化，每一种来源都有不同的发展节奏。主题包括美帝国衰落的兴起与开始，苏联共产主义的转型，新凯恩斯主义向新自由主义的迅速转型，在这段时期出现的三种大危机——核武器、大衰败与气候变化。