Enjoy Prime FREE for 30 days
Here's what Amazon Prime has to offer:
Delivery Speed | |
---|---|
Same-Day Delivery (in select cities) | FREE |
One-Day Delivery | FREE |
Two-Day Delivery | FREE |
$68.38$68.38
FREE delivery: Saturday, April 27
Ships from: Amazon.ca
Sold by: Amazon.ca
$36.32
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D. 990 - 1992 Paperback – April 8 1993
Purchase options and add-ons
-
ISBN-101557863687
-
ISBN-13978-1557863683
-
Edition1st
-
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
-
Publication dateApril 8 1993
-
LanguageEnglish
-
Dimensions14.92 x 1.65 x 22.86 cm
-
Print length288 pages
Frequently bought together
Popular titles by this author
-
Durable InequalityDirector Center for Studies of Social Change and Professor of History and Sociology Charles Tilly PhDPaperback
Product description
Review
"Tilly's thesis is presented with great lucidity... contributed to perform a service not merely for historians, but for mankind." French History
"An important, provocative theory, with much originality and richly documented .... extremely well written." American Journal of Sociology
"This is a good and important book. It is well written, and it presents the complex history of European state formation over a time span of one thousand years in a most understandable way. With a profound knowledge of history and an amazing compository skill, Tilly takes his readers by the hand and leads them." International Review of Social History
From the Inside Flap
Professor Tilly shows how interactions between the wielders of power on the one hand and the manipulators of capital on the other resulted in three state formations each of which prevailed over long periods - tribute-taking empires, systems of fragmented sovereignty, and national states. he argues that to conceive European state development as a simple, unilinear process is untenable, and further that relations between the states themselves are a big factor in their formation and evolution. The final part of the book then applies these insights to the history of Third World states since 1945.
For the paperback edition the author has made minor revisions throughout and provided an additional section on the rapid changes that have recently taken place in Central and Eastern Europe.
"An Important, provocative theory, with much originality and richly documented...it is extremely well written, despite containing both theory and a wealth of empirical information. It caries substantial learning lightly."
--Michael Mann, American Journal of Sociology
"Admirable...Thoughtful and scrupulous."
--Basil Davidson, Journal of International Affairs
"Admirers of Charles Tilly's work on European history will now have even more to admire - another genuine breakthrough. ... Straightforward, enlightened, and powerful."
--Jack A. Goldstone, Contemporary Sociology
From the Back Cover
Professor Tilly shows how interactions between the wielders of power on the one hand and the manipulators of capital on the other resulted in three state formations each of which prevailed over long periods - tribute-taking empires, systems of fragmented sovereignty, and national states. he argues that to conceive European state development as a simple, unilinear process is untenable, and further that relations between the states themselves are a big factor in their formation and evolution. The final part of the book then applies these insights to the history of Third World states since 1945.
For the paperback edition the author has made minor revisions throughout and provided an additional section on the rapid changes that have recently taken place in Central and Eastern Europe.
"An Important, provocative theory, with much originality and richly documented...it is extremely well written, despite containing both theory and a wealth of empirical information. It caries substantial learning lightly."
--Michael Mann, American Journal of Sociology
"Admirable...Thoughtful and scrupulous."
--Basil Davidson, Journal of International Affairs
"Admirers of Charles Tilly's work on European history will now have even more to admire - another genuine breakthrough. ... Straightforward, enlightened, and powerful."
--Jack A. Goldstone, Contemporary Sociology
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell; 1st edition (April 8 1993)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1557863687
- ISBN-13 : 978-1557863683
- Item weight : 431 g
- Dimensions : 14.92 x 1.65 x 22.86 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: #625,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,257 in Europe Textbooks
- #5,565 in English History (Books)
- #9,578 in Political Science (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from Canada
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Tilly makes many good points. He reminds us that rulers did not operate with a specific plan of state formation in mind--they created states only in conjunction with certain of their subjects. Given geographic and temporal circumstances, rulers could only pursue increasingly costly military ventures by bargaining with power blocks within their subject population for the necessary resources--soldiers, rations, etc. Where capital was not accumulated and concentrated, the balance of power lay with landowners. Where a city had emerged with a concentration of capital, proto-capitalists held power. Where capital was unavailable, the ruler could resort to methods of coercion of his subjects. Political and economic conditions dictated the bargaining terms with which the ruler sought to win support for his military goals. Tilly argues that different combinations of coercion and capital created diverse types of states. As the demands of war increased, the power blocks which rulers depended on gained more and more advantage over them, thus winning for themselves concessions that increased their standing in the state's government. In effect, the era of bureaucratization was born. The means of capitalization and coercion were incorporated into the structure of the state, and thus was born the nation-state. Essentially, the nation-state has proven to be the best at mobilizing and fighting wars, leading lesser states to either emulate it or risk being conquered by it.
Tilly offers a somewhat simplistic argument, acknowledging the criticisms he duly expects will come. State formation is portrayed as little more than an afterthought of warmongering. The accumulation of royal concessions in time laid the foundation for permanent infrastructure. By seeking revenues and compliance from a subject population, rulers eventually found themselves having to provide for their subjects' welfare--via production, distribution, transportation, etc. In the most modern states, social spending now outweighs military spending; this has served to shorten the length of wars while greatly increasing their intensity. A major contribution of this book is its implication that social history by itself does not explain the emergence of modern states and societies. Some will find Tilly's simplistic model untenable, but I find it quite logical and compelling. His argument (and the wealth of resources on which he draws) certainly warrants serious thought on the part of the reader.
1) What role did class struggle have in the formation of states?
This concerned is hinted at but not explored. If wars have
become increasingly expensive how have states been able to
impose the high cost of war on their citizens? Does this not
also mean increased exploitation and intensified struggle?
2) How have nuclear weapons effected the long term viability of
national states?
Top reviews from other countries
Tilly essentially provides us with a historical thought experiment in which he seeks to determine how much of the historical variation in the development of European states can be elucidated through an exploration of city/state interaction and the accumulation (total volume) and consolidation (distribution) of capital and the material means of violence. This might sound like a historical-materialist analysis to some, but Tilly never focuses on class conflict as a driving force of history. Again, he's simply interested in bringing out interesting relationships between capital and coercion, such as the relationship between capitalist expansion and the ability to raise capital-intensive professional armies (as only an industrialized economy can facilitate) vs. mercenary or peasant armies, setting in motion a cycle of economic and militaristic expansion that made the industrialized nation-state the dominant form of state of the modern era.
In the process, he closely examines cities as crucial hubs of the flows of capital and the consolidation of military might in the hands of a centralized state. Combining all these factors, he does an excellent job of highlighting some of the causes of the different patterns of development in the different regions of Europe - from the Italian city-states of the Renaissance, who rose and fell with the fate of militarized mercantilism in luxury goods, to the different fates of Eastern and Western Europe once a continental division of labor set it - dynastic seats of power in Eastern Europe, in which economic diversity and social pluralism were stunted by the dominance of large-scale landowners and capitalist agriculture, vs. the development of cottage industry and later factory organization in Western Europe. Pretty straightforward history, actually, and Tilly never claims to be making any startling new discoveries, so much as teasing out the full implications of such a theoretical framework. As a big-level thinker, he clearly enjoyed writing the book, which also makes it an enjoyable, if challenging read.