The Nation-State and Violence (ePub)

The social sciences have long been based upon contrasts drawn
between the 'militaristic' societies of the past, and the
'capitalist' or 'industrial' societies of the present. But how
valid are such contrasts, given that the current era is one stamped
by the impact of war and by the intensive development of
sophisticated weaponry?

In setting out to address this and similar questions, this book
investigates issues that have been substantially neglected by those
working in sociology and social theory. Anthony Giddens offers a
sociological analysis of the nature of the modern nation-state and
its association with the means of waging war. His analysis is
connected in a detailed way to problems that have traditionally
preoccupied sociologists - the impact of capitalism and
industrialism upon social development in the modern period. The
result is a theory both of the institutional parameters of
modernity and of the nature of international relations.

The book is a sequel to the author's much discussed
Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. The
framework of social theory outlined in that work is here elucidated
in a systematic and thorough-going fashion. The novel and
provocative ideas which the author develops will interest those
working in a wide variety of disciplines: sociology, politics,
geography and international affairs.