Examines large-scale processes of social change that have produced durable and defining aspects of our contemporary world and asks, How did we get here? It focuses on four key issues: how markets and the pursuit of profit came to organize virtually all aspects of material life and restructured societies around social classes; how democratic forms of governance emerged to direct states and the persistent challenges presented by authoritarian rule; how social revolution erupts and what kinds of changes it yields; and how warfare between states can produce varieties of change not necessarily comprehended in the foregoing domains.