Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The first part of the book devotes the material life of humanity, from food to clothes and money. The second part contemplates the transformation of economic life from medieval markets to capitalist world trade; the structures in which capitalism evolved. The third part focuses on what could describe as the life of capitalism; a history of the successive poles or cities where capitalism flourished. The book bears many resemblances to William McNeill's Rise of the West, which represents World History as it developed in North America after the Second World War. It arises out of people's shared belief that the study of circulations allows for an escape from the Western, or even Northern Atlantic limitations of art historical questions, methods, and institutions, and opens up a new and necessary articulation of theory that is conjoined with pragmatism and materialism in art history.