States, Nations, and the Problem of the Nation-State The
emergence of European states was neither inevitable nor uniform
nor irreversible. Their formation created a problematic
relationship between state structures and national loyalties.
These central themes have a significance far beyond Europe.
Throughout the world the state-making process is still complex,
uneven, and unfinished. James J. Sheehan is the Dickason
Professor in the Humanities, emeritus, at Stanford University
and a past president of the American Historical Association. He
has written five books, mostly on German history in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His most recent work is
Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? The Transformation of Modern
Europe (2008). Click here to download the podcast.