Sources of Social Power. In 4 volumes. Volume 2. The Formation of Classes and Nation-States. Book 2

Highlighting four sources of power - ideological, economic, military and political - in human societies, the monograph "Sources of social power" traces their historical relationships. The second volume of the analytical history of the social power of Michael Mann is devoted to the relationship between the power between the industrial revolution and the First World War and is focused on France, Great Britain, Habsburg Austria, Prussia-Germanic and the United States. Based on fundamental empirical research, the author puts forward the original theories of the formation of nations and nationalism, class conflicts, modern state and modern militarism. He also emphasizes the social and historical complexity of the phenomena under consideration, not afraid of generalizations. Michael Mann explores human society as a “structured mess” and tries to develop a sociological theory corresponding to such an idea. This theory is crowned by the final chapter, where the original explanation of the causes of the First World War is presented. The book was first published in 1993, the new edition of the second volume includes an updated preface in which the author conducts an analysis of the influence and trace left by this work in historiography