Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein is best known for world-systems theory, outlined in his series of books, beginning with The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century in 1974. World-systems theory is a comprehensive theoretical framework and methodology for the study of social change in the context of the global system of nations. World-systems theory has reshaped the sociology of development and has made Wallerstein one of the discipline's single most influential scholars.

Less well-known today are Wallerstein's earlier contributions to African studies throughout the 1960s. His Ph.D. thesis at Columbia, later published as The Road to Independence: Ghana and the Ivory Coast (1964), dealt with nationalist independence movements in the two countries. Drawing on modernization theory, Wallerstein discussed the role of voluntary associations as precursors to independence movements. In his two following books Africa: The Politics of Independence (1961) and Africa: The Politics...