"This succinct, pungent and wide-ranging book is an elegant survey of the main forms of polity in world history and their competitive afterlives in our present. Any book from Anthony Pagden is an event to be welcomed. Few historians have such reach and readership; few writers have such depth of erudition."—David Armitage, Harvard University"Beyond States is a fascinating intellectual journey, written with flair and backed by immense knowledge of laws, commerce and nations. Pagden's reading of history is sophisticated and counterintuitive. This is a must-read book for anyone trying to grasp the evolving nature of global politics."—Jan Zielonka, Universities of Venice and Oxford"[A] timely and urgent call for rethinking our identities and notions of sovereignty in a world increasingly bound by common and mounting threats. . . . Pagden's heroic vision may help set future generations free."—Tingis Magazine"[A] very interesting book that is certainly worth reading."—Sociological Research Online"Pagden tells the grand story of the centuries-long transformation of the world of empires into a global system of sovereign states.... [He] sees the modern nation-state caught in a deep dilemma: it may have provided the fundamental political-legal framework for securing the rights of people, but it now struggles to protect its inhabitants from the global fallout of climate change and technological transformation."—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs
