A grand sweeping analysis of the formation of nationalities in Europe over a thousand years, explained in terms of the level and concentration of capital and the use of coercion.
Provocative, controversial and very well written.
Very distinguished author.

Autorentext

Charles Tilly is University Distinguished Professor at the New School for Social Research, where he directs the Centre for Studies of Social Change.

Klappentext

In this pathbreaking work, now available in paperback, Charles Tilly challenges all previous formulations of state development in Europe. Specifically, Tilly charges that most available explanations fail because they do not account for the great variety of kinds of states which were viable at different stages of European history, and because they assume a unilinear path of state development resolving in today's national state.

Zusammenfassung
An account of the evolution of European states. It shows how interactions between the wielders of power on the one hand and the manipulators of capital on the other resulted in three state formations each of which prevailed over long periods. It argues that to conceive European state development as a simple, unilinear process is untenable.

Inhalt

Preface ix

1 Cities and States in World History 1

States in History 1

Available Answers 5

Logics of Capital and Coercion 16

War Drives State Formation and Transformation 20

Long Trends and Interactions 28

Prospects 33

2 European Cities and States 38

Absent Europe 38

States and Coercion 45

Cities and Capital 47

City-State Interaction 51

State Physiologies 54

Liaisons Dangereuses 58

Alternative Forms of State 62

3 How War Made States, and Vice Versa 67

A Bifurcation of Violence 67

How States Controlled Coercion 68

Wars 70

Transitions 76

Seizing, Making, or Buying Coercion 84

Paying the Debts 87

The Long, Strong Arm of Empire 91

4 States and their Citizens 96

From Wasps to Locomotives 96

Bargaining, Rights, and Collective Action 99

The Institution of Direct Rule 103

The French Revolution: From Indirect to Direct Rule 107

State Expansion, Direct Rule, and Nationalism 114

Unintended Burdens 117

Militarization = Civilianization 122

5 Lineages of the National State 127

China and Europe 127

States and Cities Reexamined 130

Coercive Trajectories 137

Capitalist Trajectories 143

Trajectories of Capitalized Coercion 151

6 The European State System 161

The Connectedness of European States 161

The Ends of Wars 165

Members of the System 170

The Creation of a State-Linked World 181

How Wars Began 183

Six Salient Questions 187

7 Soldiers and States in 1992 192

Political Misdevelopment 192

The Impact and Heritage of World War II 197

The Ascent of Military Men 203

Today's Military in Historical Perspective 205

Military Buildup 209

Soldiers in Power 211

How Did the Military Gain Power? 217

Envoi 224

References 228

Index 263