This book addresses the simple question of why nationalism develops simultaneously with modern economic growth. Looking at six examples from the UK, Germany, Yugoslavia, Japan, China and Singapore, Mosk argues that nationalism arose because of both the declining unit cost in material production and the evolution of ideology.

Mosk combines quantitative economic history with qualitative political history and focuses on statistical estimation of technological progress in manufacturing, transport and communications, and the exerting of military force; an analysis of the interaction between emergent and reactive nationalism; with an emphasis on national branding as a feature of modern ideology.