Immanuel Wallerstein is often named“the master of the field”2when scholarsdiscuss world-systems theory, and while there are others whose works pavedthe way for this kind of analysis,3it is true that the former had a prominentposition within the field he helped to create. Wallerstein, however, would notonly be perceived as a “worldwide renowned and influential sociologist andeconomic historian, interdisciplinary researcher of the emergence, function-ingandstructuralcrisisofthepolarisedworldsystemofcapitalisteconomy,aswell as radical intellectual who closely related scientific analysis and politicalaction of antisystemic movements,”4but also as a “prolific writer and forceful polemicist on a wide range of topics from contemporary Africa to social the-ory.”5Considering both of these sides of Wallerstein’s voluminous œuvre, it issafe to agree with Christopher Chase-Dunn, Jackie Smith, Patrick Manning,and Andrej Gruba?i?, who described Wallerstein as “an intrepid protagonistof human equality and an innovative and influential social scientist who leda scholarly movement to build a coherent framework for understanding theemergenceanddevelopmentofglobalcapitalism.”6Wallersteinwassearchingfortheoreticalanswerstohistoricalproblems7aswellasawayto“translatethelessons from [world-systems] analyses into action aimed at transforming thisindisputably unjust system.”8Indeed, Wallerstein and his colleagues openeda path for a specific look at the history and the current state of the globalizedworld, and world-systems theory became an essential part of the analysis ofcapitalistmodernity.Despiteoftenbeingcriticizedandprobablynevertrulyenvogue for a majority of scholars in the humanities and social sciences, world-systemstheorycanoffermorethanisfrequentlyanticipated.9Beforetheseas-pects are taken into closer consideration,a closer look at Wallerstein’s life andwork and the elements or events that influenced them seems to be in order tosee how his conceptualization of what would later be termed “world-systemstheory” or “world-systems analysis” was, in a certain way, just a consequenceof his personal experiences.