Miguel A. Centeno is Chair of the Sociology Department and Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. He has published many articles, chapters and books, the most recent of which are Global Capitalism (2010) and Discrimination in an Unequal World (2010). He has served as the founding director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and as master of Wilson College. Centeno has been a Fulbright scholar in Russia and Mexico. He has also been a visiting professor in Buenos Aires, Seoul and Spain. In 1997 he was awarded the Presidential Teaching Prize at Princeton University. Agustin E. Ferraro is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Salamanca, Spain. He was visiting professor at Princeton University for the Spring Term 2011. He won the 2009 award of the Spanish National Institute for Public Administration for his research on state reforms and public policy in Latin America. As a Humboldt Scholar from 2001 to 2003, he worked at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Hamburg and at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

'… this is a quite outstanding volume of comparative historical sociology on the Hispanic world … This suggestive and intellectually refreshing quality owes much to the care with which the editors have designed a volume that plainly derives for an extended period of collaboration.' James Dunkerley, Journal of Global Faultlines

• 1. Republics of the possible: state building in Latin America and Spain Miguel Centeno and Agustin Ferraro; 2. The construction of national states, 1820–90: five cases, multiple variables Frank Safford; 3. State building in Western Europe and the Americas before and in the long nineteenth century: some preliminary considerations Wolfgang Knoebl; 4. The state and development under the Brazilian monarchy: 1822–89 Jeffrey Needell; 5. The Brazilian federal state in the old republic (1889–1930): did regime change make a difference? Joseph E. Love; 6. The Mexican state, Porfirian and revolutionary (1876–1930) Alan Knight; 7. Nicaragua: the difficult creation of a sovereign state Salvador Martí; 8. Friends' tax. Patronage, fiscality and state building in Argentina and Spain Claudia Herrera and Agustin Ferraro; 9. Ideological pragmatism and non-partisan expertise in nineteenth-century Chile: Andrés Bello's contribution to state and nation building Iván Jaksic; 10. Militarization without bureaucratization in Central America James Mahoney; 11. Between 'Empleomanía' and the common good: successful expert bureaucracies in Argentina (1870–1930) Ricardo Salvatore; 12. Elite preferences, administrative institutions, and educational development during Peru's Aristocratic Republic (1895–1919) Hillel Soifer; 13. Liberalism in the Iberian world 1808–25 Roberto Breña; 14. Visions of the national: natural endowments, futures, and the evils of men Fernando López-Alves; 15. Spanish national identity in the age of nationalisms José Alvarez Junco; 16. Census taking and nation making in nineteenth-century Latin America Mara Loveman; 17. Citizens before the law: the role of courts in post-independence state building in Spanish America Sara Chambers; 18. Visualizing the nation: the mid-nineteenth-century Colombian chorographic commission Nancy Applebaum; 19. Paper leviathans. Historical legacies and state strength in contemporary Latin America and Spain Miguel Centeno and Agustin Ferraro.

Miguel A. Centeno is Chair of the Sociology Department and Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. He has published many articles, chapters and books, the most recent of which are Global Capitalism (2010) and Discrimination in an Unequal World (2010). He has served as the founding director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and as master of Wilson College. Centeno has been a Fulbright scholar in Russia and Mexico. He has also been a visiting professor in Buenos Aires, Seoul and Spain. In 1997 he was awarded the Presidential Teaching Prize at Princeton University. Agustin E. Ferraro is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Salamanca, Spain. He was visiting professor at Princeton University for the Spring Term 2011. He won the 2009 award of the Spanish National Institute for Public Administration for his research on state reforms and public policy in Latin America. As a Humboldt Scholar from 2001 to 2003, he worked at the Institute for Latin American Studies in Hamburg and at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

'… this is a quite outstanding volume of comparative historical sociology on the Hispanic world … This suggestive and intellectually refreshing quality owes much to the care with which the editors have designed a volume that plainly derives for an extended period of collaboration.' James Dunkerley, Journal of Global Faultlines

• 1. Republics of the possible: state building in Latin America and Spain Miguel Centeno and Agustin Ferraro; 2. The construction of national states, 1820–90: five cases, multiple variables Frank Safford; 3. State building in Western Europe and the Americas before and in the long nineteenth century: some preliminary considerations Wolfgang Knoebl; 4. The state and development under the Brazilian monarchy: 1822–89 Jeffrey Needell; 5. The Brazilian federal state in the old republic (1889–1930): did regime change make a difference? Joseph E. Love; 6. The Mexican state, Porfirian and revolutionary (1876–1930) Alan Knight; 7. Nicaragua: the difficult creation of a sovereign state Salvador Martí; 8. Friends' tax. Patronage, fiscality and state building in Argentina and Spain Claudia Herrera and Agustin Ferraro; 9. Ideological pragmatism and non-partisan expertise in nineteenth-century Chile: Andrés Bello's contribution to state and nation building Iván Jaksic; 10. Militarization without bureaucratization in Central America James Mahoney; 11. Between 'Empleomanía' and the common good: successful expert bureaucracies in Argentina (1870–1930) Ricardo Salvatore; 12. Elite preferences, administrative institutions, and educational development during Peru's Aristocratic Republic (1895–1919) Hillel Soifer; 13. Liberalism in the Iberian world 1808–25 Roberto Breña; 14. Visions of the national: natural endowments, futures, and the evils of men Fernando López-Alves; 15. Spanish national identity in the age of nationalisms José Alvarez Junco; 16. Census taking and nation making in nineteenth-century Latin America Mara Loveman; 17. Citizens before the law: the role of courts in post-independence state building in Spanish America Sara Chambers; 18. Visualizing the nation: the mid-nineteenth-century Colombian chorographic commission Nancy Applebaum; 19. Paper leviathans. Historical legacies and state strength in contemporary Latin America and Spain Miguel Centeno and Agustin Ferraro.