Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (World Social Change). This item is unavailable.Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World (World Social Change)

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 centurys 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.

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.