State-Making in an Age of Revolution, 1830-1880 - (Proceedings of the British Academy) by Christos Aliprantis & Anna Ross (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

How did states expand in the mid-nineteenth century? While scholars now associate the period after the 1848 revolutions with a striking increase in state activity, few have demonstrated how new state-building measures were put into practice. From France to Hungary and Scandinavia to Spain, State-Making in An Age of Revolution shows how officials went about implementing reform. With original contributions grounded in extensive archival research, this volume casts light on the scale at which officials relied on elites, professionals, and technical experts both inside and outside of government - and even from outside their own states - to carry out their expanding work. Together, these findings help us to re-think the reach and nature of growing states during these pivotal decades of change.