The Nation-State and Violence

The social sciences have long been based upon contrasts drawnbetween the 'militaristic' societies of the past, and the'capitalist' or 'industrial' societies of the present. But howvalid are such contrasts, given that the current era is one stampedby the impact of war and by the intensive development ofsophisticated weaponry? In setting out to address this and similar questions, this bookinvestigates issues that have been substantially neglected by thoseworking in sociology and social theory. Anthony Giddens offers asociological analysis of the nature of the modern nation-state andits association with the means of waging war. His analysis isconnected in a detailed way to problems that have traditionallypreoccupied sociologists - the impact of capitalism andindustrialism upon social development in the modern period. Theresult is a theory both of the institutional parameters ofmodernity and of the nature of international relations. The book is a sequel to the author's much discussedContemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Theframework of social theory outlined in that work is here elucidatedin a systematic and thorough-going fashion. The novel andprovocative ideas which the author develops will interest thoseworking in a wide variety of disciplines: sociology, politics,geography and international affairs.