CULTURE + THE STATE
Edited by James Gifford & Gabrielle Zezulka-Mailloux


In 1989 some proclaimed the imminent universal triumph of a particular state form — the modern liberal state. Since then, others proclaim the imminent demise of the modern nation state under advancing globalization. Yet modern states continue to be formed — from the former Yugoslavia to the new East Timor.

One thing is clear in these developments. Despite the global promotion of science and commerce, culture in various forms had and has a major if not central role in state formation, from ancient times to the present.

The four volumes of Culture and the State address all these issues, and more. Organized around a set of flexible themes, the series considers the role of culture variously defined — high and low, elite and popular, local and global, historical and contemporary — in the creation, maintenance, transformation, and demise of states.

A broad range of themes are addressed, including culture and commerce; the state and cultures of sexuality; indigenous and industrialized cultures; science and culture and cultures of science; culture and social difference; culture and immigration and integration; the relations of different cultural forms; culture and modernization, post-modern cultures and post-modern states, and so on.