This book examines the key institutional structures and processes of modernity. Combining historical insight with sustained political and social analysis, Hall analyses the form and character of capitalism, war, late development, civil society and the the causes and collapse of socialism and addesses the revival of nationalism and the possibilities of democratization.

John A Hall is Emeritus James McGill Professor of Sociology at McGill University and the author of many books includingPowers and Liberties: The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West(Blackwell, 1985),Liberalism: Politics, Ideology and the Market(Paladin, 1988),Coercion and Consent: Studies on the Modern State (Polity, 1994) andInternational Orders:Essays, Interpretations and Rejoinders (Polity, 1996).

Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

1. Capstones and Organisms.

2. A Curious Stability.

3. An Absolute Collapse.

4. State Power and Patterns of Late Development (written with Ding-Xin Zhao).

5. Consolidations of Democracy.

6. Nationalisms, Classified and Explained.

7. Will the United States Decline as Britain did?.

8. The Weary Titan? Arms and Empire, 1870-1913.

Conclusion: The State of Post-Modernism.

Index.