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 phenonemon and as such is liable to ''expiry'' both through the process of globalisation and through the development of a ''cyber-society'' which evades state control. By contrast developments in southeastern Europe the former USSR and parts of Africa and the Far East show that building the nation-state has not run its course.