Arguing that states emerged in Western Europe as powerful political-geographical centres rather than nation-states or national states, Samuel Clark examines and compares the centres and peripheries of these two large regional zones, focusing not only on England and France but also on Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Savoy, and the Southern Low Countries. This wide-ranging and multifaceted work shows how the state shaped the aristocracy and transformed its political, economic, cultural, and status power. From a theoretical perspective, State and Status is both innovative and significant; Clark is the first to link the anti-functionalist historical sociology of Western Europe with the functionalist or neofunctionalist tradition in sociology.

Samuel Clark is professor emeritus of sociology at Western University and author of State and Status: The Rise of the State and Aristocratic Power in Western Europe.

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"[Clark] combines a strong interest in theory with disciplined empirical analysis in his masterful tracking of the vicissitudes of state and aristocracy in England and France." Neil Smelser, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California.