The Nation-State and Global Order:
A Historical Introduction to Contemporary Politics

by Walter C. Opello, Jr. and Stephen J. Rosow

This engaging introduction to contemporary politics examines the historical construction of the modern territorial state.

Rejecting models of continuous, linear development, Opello and Rosow fuse accounts of governing practices, technological change, political economy, language, and culture into a narrative of the formation of specific state forms. The modern territorial state appears not as necessary or inevitable, but as the contingent achievement of specific, historically situated political actions and agendas.

Cases of state formation in England, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, Iraq, the Republic of Congo, and Japan enrich the discussion, which ranges from Ancient Rome to the present. The final chapters of the book address the current consequences and future of the modern state’s ability to maintain order and to rule subject populations in a world in which state sovereignty is increasingly loosened from its territorial moorings.

“Very good.... It has a straightforward, no nonsense style that will be easily accessible to students.”

—Craig Murphy

“An impressive work... rich in historical data and substantive arguments.”

—Siba Grovogui

About the authors.

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The Nation-State and Global Order: A Historical Introduction to Contemporary Politics