“A brilliant and visionary book.” —Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

What has happened to the nation-state? From a prize-winning writer, a sweeping history of this most unquestioned of modern structures and a bold imagining of 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 deliver minimal 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 depend on improvised systems of their own.

Rana Dasgupta traces the formation and rise of the nation-state system in order 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.