Steven Marks is Professor of History at Clemson University, South Carolina. He has written books and articles on Russian economic and cultural history, all with a comparative global focus, including How Russia Shaped the Modern World (2003), on the international reception of Russian ideas, and Road to Power (1991), on the creation of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Information Nexus is the summation of his thinking on world economic history and the history of capitalism, subjects he has taught for more than twenty years. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1988.