Beginning in the nineteenth century, cycles of violent upheaval and world war collapsed empires and dynastic kingdoms, while the nation-state spread to every corner of the globe. This ambitious book provides one of the best accounts yet of this grand transformation of the global political order, driven by the explosive appeal of nationalism and self-rule. As nation-states grew in legitimacy and mobilized ever more power, other types of polities could not compete. Wim-mer's major contribution is to demonstrate how the spread of the nation-state generated violence and war.
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