Nations without States
Class, Society and Geography in the world-system
Author(s) Sam Parry
Language: English
Genre(s): Politics
- October 2026 · 272 pages ·216x138mm
- · Paperback - 9781837724055
- · eBook - pdf - 9781837724062
- · eBook - epub - 9781837724079
This book offers a structural and longue durée analysis of Wales, Catalonia, the Mezzogiorno, and Padania, as regional configurations of the capitalist world-system. Rejecting methodological nationalism, it examines how these regions were historically produced through conquest, incorporation, dependency, accumulation, and uneven development within both state structures and global economic processes. Rather than treating them as autonomous ‘stateless nations’, the book analyses their political tensions, economic roles and cultural trajectories as outcomes of their relational position in the world-system. It traces how centralisation, resource extraction, administrative restructuring and differentiated economic functions have shaped their long-term development. Integrating political economy, territorial governance, historical sociology and comparative history, it reveals how modern states are built from internally differentiated regions whose conflicting roles are integral to the reproduction of capitalism. Through deep comparative analysis across centuries, the book illuminates how internal national questions persist, not as anomalies, but as structural features of capitalist modernity.
'This is the most economically literate, holistic and thoughtful book about Wales in a generation. Placing this stateless nation within the context of others that have been buffeted by the same waves of global change and imperial ambition only adds to its value … told more in the style of a twisting historical novel than a dry academic text.', Professor Calvin Jones, University of Cork
'Nations without States is essential reading for anyone concerned about past and present nationalism, capitalism and democracy.', Jason W. Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of Life
'This splendid and important book locates Wales in the world by employing a sophisticated theoretical framework. It is written vividly, with great clarity and some elegance, offering new perspectives while addressing old questions. Nations without States deserves widespread discussion and debate.', Neil Evans, Honorary Research Fellow, Bangor University
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS
DEPENDENCY THEORY AND THE STAGIST VIEW OF DEVELOPMENT
Dependency Theory
Distorted Development
Limitations of Dependency Theory
UNIT OF ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATION
THE ANNALES SCHOOL AND THE LONGUE DURÉE
The longue durée
The conjoncture or Periodic History
L’histoire événementielle or Episodic History
WORLD-SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
The Periphery
The Semi-Periphery
States and Nations
Nationalism
CATALONIA AND SPAIN
Geography
THE CROWN OF ARAGÓN
The Catalan (Re)conquista
Late-Medieval Crisis
Union of Castile and Aragón
THE RECONQUISTA
The Process of Reconquest
Sugar and the new Frontiers
1492 AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAS
Silver, Agriculture, and the Economy
1492 and the world-system
Spain of the 17th Century
BUILDING THE SPANISH STATE
The Catalan Economy
The fall of the Colonies and the Catalan Economy
The Catalan ‘Rebirth’
Ecology and Labour
1898, EMPIRE AND FASCISM
The rise of Catalan Nationalism
The Spanish Civil War and Facism
The Catalan Economy under Fascism
THE RETURN TO LIBERAL DEMOCRACY: CATALONIA IN THE WORLD-SYSTEM
Spain as Semi-periphery
Catalonia as Core?
CONCLUSION
THE MEZZOGIORNO, PADANIA, AND ITALY
Geography
The Roman Foundations of Italy
Italy and the Carolingian Empire
10th Century Situation
The Meeting of Christian and Islamic Worlds
THE ITALIAN CITY-STATE SYSTEM
The Economy of the City-State
Banking and Finance
The Development of the City-State System
The Guilds and Agriculture
Hidden Labour
The Social Superstructre
The Church
A FAILURE TO TRANSITION?
Long-distance Trade
The South
A Feudal Social Structure
The Changing Position of Italy within the World-System
THE FALL OF ITALY
Foreign Control
Reform
THE ITALIAN RISORGIMENTO
The Passive Revolution
The Risorgimento and the Roots of ‘The Southern Question’
The Southern Economy
Italian Colonialism
FASCIST ITALY AND THE POST-WAR PERIOD
Fascist Italy and the Changing Southern Question
Post-War Italy: A New Dawn?
Italy in the world-system After 1945
The Cassa Per il Mezzogiorno
ITALY SINCE THE 1990S: THE NATIONALISM OF THE NORTH
Padania: Inventing a Nation
It’s the Economy, Stupid.
The International Context
CONCLUSION
WALES AND BRITAIN
Geography
THE ANGLO-SAXONS AND POST-ROMAN WALES
The Normans and the Welsh March
Geographic Conditions and the Economy
THE TUDORS AND STATE CONSOLIDATION
The Acts of Union with Wales
The Reformation
THE BIRTH OF CAPITALISM
Agricultural Capitalism and its Foundations
The Parts and the Whole: The World-System and Agricultural Capitalism
Capitalism and Slavery
The Absence of Agricultural Capitalism in Wales
The ‘English’ Civil War
Wales and the ‘English’ Civil War
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE FOUR CHEAPS
Cheap Labour
Cheap Energy
Cheap Food
THE NATIONAL/IMPERIAL CONTRADICTION
Nonconformism and the Failure of Welsh Liberalism
Class Conflict in Wales
All That is Solid Melts into Air
POST-WAR (DIS)UNITY
Thatcherism
The Fall of Empire
‘New’ Wales, Old Problems
How Leave was my Valley?
CONCLUSION
THE PAST WE INHERIT, THE FUTURE WE BUILD
REFERENCES
