Modernity at Large is an edited collection of the essays that made Appadurai an influential figure in cultural anthropology. Collectively, these not only present a theory of globalization, but also suggest ways that other researchers can follow up on the author's ideas. For anthropologists, the book introduced new ways of thinking about how communities are affected by globalization. More broadly, its theories about the importance of culture and identity in a globalized world pointed to new directions in study. Modernity at Large challenges the idea that globalization inevitably leads to everywhere becoming the same instead arguing that it also produces new and different ways of life.