War and Social Change in Modern Europe: The Great Transformation Revisited

Sandra Halperin traces the persistence of traditional class structures in the course of the development of industrial capitalism in Europe and the way the structures influenced state behavior and generated conflict. Halperin focuses on the interrelationship of social forces, industrial expansion, and conflict in Europe between 1789 and 1944 (in part through a critique of Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation (1944)). Her account of the period challenges not only Polanyi's analysis, but a variety of influential perspectives on nationalism, development, conflict, international systems change, and globalization.