The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody...
This book introduces to statebuilding literature the case of Japan, demonstrating the ways in which farmer negotiations with warlords formed the bedrock of a medieval economy that enabled the consolidation of the state.