The Revolutionary Essence of the State

The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom, by Robert Nisbet

The argument of this book is that the single most decisive influence upon Western social organization has been the rise and development of the centralized territorial state.

You will get no argument from me.  But why?  What influences brought this on, or what other influences had to be crushed in order that it could be brought on?  These are the questions that must be explored if one is to hope to move towar...