The scholars of this period, predominantly historians and social philosophers, were more concerned with the 'merits and defects' of the doctrine than with the origins and spread of national phenomena."[2] The nation-state was seen as a progressive stage in the historical development of human societies, and both liberals and Marxists expected that nationalism would eventually give way to a cosmopolitan world order. In this context, nations and nationalism were taken for granted, and most authors who discussed them were motivated by some political concern.