Nation, State, and the Economy in History

Originally published in 2003, this book addresses the rarely explored subject of the reciprocal relationships between nationalism, nation and state-building, and economic change. Analysis of the economic element in the building of nations and states cannot be confined to Europe, and therefore these diverse yet interlinked case-studies cover all continents. Authors come to contrasting conclusions, some regarding the economic factor as central, while others show that nation-states came into being before the constitution of a national market. The essays leave no doubt that the nation-state is an historical phenomenon and as such is liable to 'expire' both through the process of globalisation and through the development of a 'cyber-society' which evades state control. By contrast developments in south-eastern Europe, the former USSR, and parts of Africa and the far East show that building the nation-state has not run its course.