'Lucid, systematic, and relentless, Pierre Birnbaum never lets his readers slide by with easy generalisations about political processes or their origins. His historically informed work makes all students of state formation and collective action rethink their cherished suppositions.' Charles Tilly, New School for Social Research, New York

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Mobilisation theory and the state: the missing element; 2. States, free riders and collective movements; 3. The state and mobilisation for war: the case of the French Revolution; 4. Ideology, collective action and the state: Germany, England, France; 5. Individual action, collective action and worker's strategy: the United States, Great Britain and France; 6. The state versus corporatism: France and England; 7. The Nazi collective movement against the Prussian state; 8. Territorial and ethnic mobilisation in Scotland, Brittany and Catalonia; 9. Nation, state and culture: the example of Zionism; 10. The state, the police and the West Indians: collective movements in Great Britain; Conclusion: the end of the state? from differentiation to dedifferentiation; Notes; Index.

'Lucid, systematic, and relentless, Pierre Birnbaum never lets his readers slide by with easy generalisations about political processes or their origins. His historically informed work makes all students of state formation and collective action rethink their cherished suppositions.' Charles Tilly, New School for Social Research, New York

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Mobilisation theory and the state: the missing element; 2. States, free riders and collective movements; 3. The state and mobilisation for war: the case of the French Revolution; 4. Ideology, collective action and the state: Germany, England, France; 5. Individual action, collective action and worker's strategy: the United States, Great Britain and France; 6. The state versus corporatism: France and England; 7. The Nazi collective movement against the Prussian state; 8. Territorial and ethnic mobilisation in Scotland, Brittany and Catalonia; 9. Nation, state and culture: the example of Zionism; 10. The state, the police and the West Indians: collective movements in Great Britain; Conclusion: the end of the state? from differentiation to dedifferentiation; Notes; Index.