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

by Walter C. Opello, Stephen J. Rosow

This introduction to contemporary politics examines the historical construction of the modern territorial state. 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. This revised edition reinforces their central argument that the current neoliberal state does not represent a fundamentally new form, but is an attempt to reconstitute the managerial state in the context of globalization.

Genres: Politics, History

317 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2004

Reviews

[Shokirjon Shokirov · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book describes history of the state and nation-state, its formation, different forms and current challenges that the territorial state faces.
I liked the insightful examples about imperial and feudal states before and nation-states, managerial states after the Westphalian order.
However, the book is a historical introduction which I found less informative for me because I expected more and detailed historical, theoretical and philosophical information about the state or nation-state. Despite the book cover, the book failed to discuss more about ideas of Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, Max Weber and other important philosophers (their ideas are rarely mentioned). The Westphalian order of IR, especially the period of XVII-XVIII centuries are not detailed and even other systems of IR as Vienna, Versailles-Washington and Yalta – Potsdam systems which had a significant impact on global order and nation-state are not considered in this book. However, this book is very good introduction to politics. Therefore, it is highly recommended for junior students of political science.