This volume examines the key institutional structures and processes of modernity. In particular, it examines the form and character of capitalism, the dynamics of war, problems of late development, the nature of civil society, causes of the collapse of state socialism, the revival of nationalism and possibilities for democratization. The central thesis of the book is that modernity arrived well before most social theorists imagined, and it established structures of power and expectation that look set to remain far longer than the theorists of postmodernity claim.