ABSTRACT
Conspicuous by its absence is a conclusion. I could find only five lines attesting to what Frank wanted to say about the lessons learned from his work, along with a rough five-page introduction to an epilogue that was meant to serve as the outline of yet another volume that would ReOrient the 20th Century—a volume he knew he would never write. The epilogue does not tell us what lessons we should take with us in the wake of his ReOrienting of the nineteenth century, and the five topics he mentions in his outline provide only a few hints: (1) The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts, (2) Timing Is of the Essence; (3) Bringing the State Back In; (4) The Use of Military Power; and (5) The Dissipation of Entropy. Frank’s range of knowledge and intellectual prowess make predictions as to what he might have said about future work very difficult to second-guess. I can speak to items 1, 3, and 5. I can only invite the reader to consider for themselves Frank’s possible meanings regarding items 2 and 4.
