It is with great sadness that I report that Giovanni Arrighi passed
peacefully yesterday morning in Baltimore (Thursday June 18, 2009), with his
partner Beverly Silver, and his son, Andrea, at his side.

Scholars and activists will recall his long, brilliant trajectory, from his
earliest work on the Political Economy of Rhodesia and historical labour
supplies in southern Africa, through his Geometry of Imperialism, to his
more recent trilogy (The Long Twentieth Century, Chaos and Governance, and
Adam Smith in Beijing). In the last few years his attention had returned to
Africa, leading to a stint in residence in South Africa (Grahamstown); it is
with great regret that his promised return to writing on southern/Africa
will not, now, be fulfilled.

He leaves us a remarkable legacy: a life lived well, marked by a selfless
generosity to his students and peers, a complete lack of the cynicism that
has afflicted so many in the last decades, and, in the most recent period, a
growing optimism, nay belief, of the advent of a more humane, liberated
world on the horizon. He will be sorely missed on many continents.