Overview

What has happened to the nation-state? From a prizewinning writer, After Nations offers a sweeping history of this most unquestioned of modern structures and a bold speculation about its future. Until recently, the system of nation-states appeared settled and eternal. Not anymore. As American hegemony unwinds and Western countries slide into anxiety and debt, there is a resurgence of tyranny, imperialism and war. It is no longer clear that states can continue delivering ‘normal’ services, let alone defeat inequality and climate change. Even in rich countries, many feel they are being progressively neglected; in some parts of the world, populations are entirely abandoned by nation-states and must build systems of their own. Rana Dasgupta traces the formation and rise of the nation-state system to explain its multiple failures today. He takes us from the fall of ancient empires and the expansion of European concepts of money and law right up to the emergence of twenty-first-century tech firms – the first significant new geopolitical actors to emerge since the inception of nation-states – and the epochal restoration of Chinese power. He posits that the time has come to develop a new conception of citizenship, law, and economy—one that corresponds to our globalized and ecologically fragile condition. Richly detailed, urgent and told with remarkable clarity, After Nations is an essential text for anyone looking to understand why we seem to be losing our political hold on the world, and how we might try to restore it.

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9780008639747

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Reviews

PRAISE FOR CAPITAL: WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017 WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER 2016 'A terrific portrait of Delhi right now' SALMAN RUSHDIE 'An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE ‘Dasgupta peels back the layers of denial with insight, humanity and beautiful writing. He exposes festering wounds buts succeeds in fascinating rather than repelling’THE TIMES ‘Achingly beautiful … and cleverly tangential’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Dasgupta's combination of reportage, political critique and oral history is mordant rather than dyspeptic, sorrowful rather than castigatory. But what makes it more than a local study, what makes it so haunting, is that its textured, tart accounts of the privatisation of public space, of the incestuous relationship between the political and business classes, of the precarity that renders daily life so fraught all apply as much to Britain and the west as they do to the Indian capital’ GUARDIAN

‘Simply astonishing – After Nations offers an original perspective on the recent history of world affairs, and in the process opens new vistas onto the future of global politics. Dasgupta is consistently insightful, thought-provoking, and on point. Above all, this book is a call to rediscover our species’ most basic and important form of freedom: to create new social worlds and alternative political realities.’ David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London ‘The definitive story of the nation-state could only have been told at its end. God, money, law and nature were harnessed to forge the state – but now each force is undermining it. Fluidity is the norm of history, whether under empires of the past or – as Rana Dasgupta imagines in this sweeping narrative – through a new constitution for civilization co-created by all of us: citizens of the new Enlightenment.’ Parag Khanna, Founder & CEO of AlphaGeo and author of MOVE: Where People are Going for a Better Future PRAISE FOR CAPITAL: WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017 WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER 2016 'A terrific portrait of Delhi right now' SALMAN RUSHDIE 'An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE ‘Dasgupta peels back the layers of denial with insight, humanity and beautiful writing. He exposes festering wounds buts succeeds in fascinating rather than repelling’THE TIMES ‘Achingly beautiful … and cleverly tangential’ FINANCIAL TIMES

Author Information

Rana Dasgupta's previous books have received the Windham Campbell Prize, the Commonwealth Prize, and the Ryszard Kapuściński Award. He taught for several years at Brown University; After Nations was written as a visiting scholar at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. He lives in France.

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