This book puts the industrial revolution in a political and institutional context of state-making and the creation of modern national states, demonstrating that industrial transformation was connected to state and military interests.

1. Introduction 2. The Early Modern State 3. The construction of the myth of a laissez faire state 4. The State and the industrial revolution 5. Politics and industrial revolution in America 6. The Late-comers 7. Conclusion

Lars Magnusson is Professor and Chair of Economic History at Uppsala University, Sweden.