Nations, States and Empires

This book traces the interactions between nations, states and empires in the making of the modern world.

It is commonly assumed that nation states succeeded and replaced empires, relegating empires to the past: Hall argues that this is not the case. Empires have continued alongside nation states, shadowing them and overseeing them in the industrial era. The two world wars were imperial wars, rather than wars between nation states. Even after rapid decolonization in the 1950s and 1960s, empires persisted in the USA and the USSR. Furthermore, empires are not finished: the USA retains enormous power whilst Russia and China increasingly show imperial dispositions. Furthermore, empires and nation states do not exist in separate compartments-- rather, they often overlap. Consider the USA--at once highly nationalist and the greatest empire in the history of the world.

This highly original book will be essential reading for students and scholars in sociology and politics and for anyone interested in the political forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the modern world.

這本書追溯了國家、州和帝國之間的互動，以及它們在現代世界的形成過程中所扮演的角色。

人們普遍認為，國家取代了帝國，將帝國排除在過去之外：霍爾（Hall）認為這並非事實。帝國在工業時代仍然與國家並存，並在背後監督和影響國家。兩次世界大戰是帝國之間的戰爭，而不是國家之間的戰爭。即使在20世紀50年代和60年代的快速殖民地解放之後，帝國仍然存在於美國和蘇聯。此外，帝國並未結束：美國保持著巨大的權力，而俄羅斯和中國則越來越顯示出帝國的傾向。此外，帝國和國家並不是存在於獨立的領域中，而是經常重疊。以美國為例，它既高度民族主義，又是世界歷史上最偉大的帝國。

這本高度獨特的書對於社會學和政治學的學生和學者以及對塑造現代世界的政治力量感興趣的任何人來說都是必讀之作。

John A. Hall is Emeritus James McGill Professor of Sociology at McGill University.

「John A. Hall」是麥吉爾大學的名譽詹姆斯·麥吉爾社會學教授。