Peer Vries is Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, Netherlands, and has previously held positions as Professor of Global Economic History at University of Vienna, Austria, and Leiden University, Netherlands. His publications include State, Economy and the Great Divergence: Britain and China (2015) and Escaping Poverty: The Origins of Modern Economic Growth (2013).

Introduction
1. Continuities and Changes
2. A Sovereign and Modern State
3. A Powerful State: Politics, Ideology, the Military and the Bureaucracy
4. A Powerful State: The Economy
5. A Capitalist State, Friendly to Employers But Much Less So to Workers
6. A Developmental State
7. A State Promoting Knowledge Transfer and Education
8. Some Comments on What (Supposedly?) Went Wrong
9. A brief Summary
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index