The volume “Civilizational patterns and historical processes” includes J. Arnason’s works on the theory and methodology of civilizational analysis as a paradigm of historical sociology related to the “cultural turn”. It distinguishes some varieties of modern civilizational analysis and explains their differences from the traditional one. The second part of the review considers J. Arnason’s contribution into investigations of soviet modernity in the terms of alternative globalization project as well as the communism entangled with the Chinese one.