Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World
Author(s): Joseph W. Esherick (Editor, Contributor), Hasan Kayali (Editor), Eric Van Young (Editor, Contributor), Karen Barkey (Contributor), Uradyn E. Bulag (Contributor), Ellen Comisso (Contributor), Carlos A. Forment (Contributor), Cynthia S. Kaplan (Contributor), Resat Kasaba (Contributor), Victor M. Uribe-Uran (Contributor), Edward W. Walker (Contributor)
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Publication Date: 28 Mar. 2006
Language: English
Print length: 440 pages
ISBN-10: 0742540308
ISBN-13: 9780742540309
Book Description
The fall of empires and the rise of nation-states was a defining political transition in the making of the modern world. As United States imperialism becomes a popular focus of debate, we must understand how empire, the nineteenth century’s dominant form of large-scale political organization, had disappeared by the end of the twentieth century. Here, ten prominent specialists discuss the empire-to-nation transition in comparative perspective. Chapters on Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, and China illustrate both the common features and the diversity of the transition. Questioning the sharpness of the break implied by the empire/nation binary, the contributors explore the many ways in which empires were often nation-like and nations behaved imperially. While previous studies have focused on the rise and fall of empires or on nationalism and the process of nation-building, this intriguing volume concentrates on the empire-to-nation transition itself. Understanding this transition allows us to better interpret the contemporary political order and new forms of global hegemony.
Editorial Reviews
Review
As this excellent collection shows, imperial collapses in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Europe (including the dissolution of the Soviet Union), Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia have often left conflict-ridden legacies. Anyone interested in the forces that have shaped much of the modern world, and in many of today’s major foreign policy issues, should read this book. — Daniel Chirot, University of Washington
As the sun appears to set on empire, the authors in this valuable collection explore how imperial realms were imagined and why nation-states ultimately succeeded them. Rather than being an inevitable process, the end of empire took a variety of forms in Latin America, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union. It still persists elsewhere and may have an unpredicted future. For students of nationalism and its opponents, this book is a must-read. — Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan
In a positive revisionist analysis of the formation, growth, structure, and decline of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century empires (Ottoman, Habsburg, Chinese, Spanish, and Russian-Soviet), the authors of this original book prove that various ethnic, religious, and political features of these empires survived in the nation states that replaced them. Empire to Nation offers new perspectives for understanding the political phenomena of empires, nation-states, and nationalism in the era of globalization. — Kemal Karpat, University of Wisconsin
This unique collection of essays examines the transition from empire to nation-state in the Spanish, Ottoman, Habsburg, Chinese, and Russian empires. . . . Those seeking better resources for teaching world history will be highly pleased with this anthology. Recommended. ―
CHOICE
This book gets at one of the most intriguing and debatable processes in modern world history, the collapse of what we now call multinational empires and their replacement by different, usually smaller and often more contentious, states. The examples are chosen with wide geographical range, and the resulting comparisons are fascinating. — Peter Stearns, George Mason University, Professor, George Mason University
About the Author
Joseph W. Esherick is professor emeritus of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego. He is the holder of the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies. His books include Modern China: The Story of a Revolution, co-authored with Orville Schell; Lost Chance in China: The World War II Despatches of John S. Service; Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei; and The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. His awards include the John K. Fairbank Prize from the American Historical Association, the Joseph Levenson Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, and the 1989 Berkeley Prize from the University of California Press.
Eric Van Young is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. His books include The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Mexican Struggle for Independence, 1810-1821, winner of the 2002 Bolton-Johnson Prize.
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