Coercion, Capital and European States, A.D. 990 - 1992
Studies in Social Discontinuity

1. Edition February 1993
284 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
In this pathbreaking work, now available in paperback, Charles Tilly challenges all previous formulations of state development in Europe. Specifically, Tilly charges that most available explanations fail because they do not account for the great variety of kinds of states which were viable at different stages of European history, and because they assume a unilinear path of state development resolving in today's national state.
1 Cities and States in World History 1
States in History 1
Available Answers 5
Logics of Capital and Coercion 16
War Drives State Formation and Transformation 20
Long Trends and Interactions 28
Prospects 33
2 European Cities and States 38
Absent Europe 38
States and Coercion 45
Cities and Capital 47
City-State Interaction 51
State Physiologies 54
Liaisons Dangereuses 58
Alternative Forms of State 62
3 How War Made States, and Vice Versa 67
A Bifurcation of Violence 67
How States Controlled Coercion 68
Wars 70
Transitions 76
Seizing, Making, or Buying Coercion 84
Paying the Debts 87
The Long, Strong Arm of Empire 91
4 States and their Citizens 96
From Wasps to Locomotives 96
Bargaining, Rights, and Collective Action 99
The Institution of Direct Rule 103
The French Revolution: From Indirect to Direct Rule 107
State Expansion, Direct Rule, and Nationalism 114
Unintended Burdens 117
Militarization = Civilianization 122
5 Lineages of the National State 127
China and Europe 127
States and Cities Reexamined 130
Coercive Trajectories 137
Capitalist Trajectories 143
Trajectories of Capitalized Coercion 151
6 The European State System 161
The Connectedness of European States 161
The Ends of Wars 165
Members of the System 170
The Creation of a State-Linked World 181
How Wars Began 183
Six Salient Questions 187
7 Soldiers and States in 1992 192
Political Misdevelopment 192
The Impact and Heritage of World War II 197
The Ascent of Military Men 203
Today's Military in Historical Perspective 205
Military Buildup 209
Soldiers in Power 211
How Did the Military Gain Power? 217
Envoi 224
References 228
Index 263
Review
"Tilly's thesis is presented with great lucidity... contributed
to perform a service not merely for historians, but for mankind."
French History
"An important, provocative theory, with much originality and
richly documented .... extremely well written." American Journal
of Sociology
"This is a good and important book. It is well written, and it
presents the complex history of European state formation over a
time span of one thousand years in a most understandable way. With
a profound knowledge of history and an amazing compository skill,
Tilly takes his readers by the hand and leads them."
International Review of Social History