Book 11

War and State Making

by Karen Rasler and William R. Thompson

Published 21 September 1989
This is an empirical study of the impact of global war on the expansion and shaping of nation-states. Individual chapters examine the effects of such wars, and the preparation for them, on debt financing, expansion, military spending, welfare spending, GNP and domestic violence. The authors conclude that by virtue of the changes they spurn, global wars are inherently "accelerators of social change".