This book is the fruition of work conducted over many years by the Research Working Group on Households, Labor-Force Formation, and the World-Economy of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations. The group's membership has evolved over the years, but the authors of this volume formed its core during the key years of the collective research whose results we now present. This book is a joint product, planned and conducted from beginning to end by the entire group. This is not to be read as a collection of essays but as a single monograph, despite the multiple authorship of the various chapters. The argument of the book is a singular one, and the book should be seen as a continuous exposition from beginning to end.

The earlier work of this group can be found in the proceedings of a conference that we held jointly with the Sociology of Development Research Center of the University of Bielefeld (Federal Republic of Germany) and which was published as Joan Smith, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Hans-Dieter Evers, eds., Households and the World-Economy (1984). The very first published statement of the group, by Immanuel Wallerstein, William G. Martin, and Torry Dickinson, appeared in Review in 1982. An interim report on our research, by Randall H. McGuire, Joan Smith, and William G. Martin, appeared in Review in 1986.

This project received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, for which we are most grateful (Projects RO-1900-81 and RO-20647-84).