Jonathan Spencer is Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia at the University of Edinburgh.

• 1. The strange death of political anthropology; 2. Locating the political; 3. Culture, nation and misery; 4. Performing democracy; 5. The state and self-making; 6. The state and violence; 7. Pluralism in theory, pluralism in practice; 8. Politics and counter-politics.

'Spencer variously builds upon and critiques the contributions of sub-alternism and classic political anthropology to the topic … The author does a good job of deconstructing the sometimes limiting frameworks of a number of key thinkers on the subject; arguing that the eagerness to invest politics into 'stateless' societies has led the discipline, to its detriment, to draw focus away from the study of the state in favour of instrumentality … this book is an accessible and well written contribution to South Asian studies and political anthropology more generally. Spencer's writing style and the clarity and persuasiveness of his analysis make this broadly conceived work a valuable contribution to the field.' Nations and Nationalism