Anthony Pagden is distinguished professor of political science and history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
""This succinct, pungent and wide-ranging book is an elegant survey of the main forms of polity in world history and their competitive afterlives in our present. Any book from Anthony Pagden is an event to be welcomed. Few historians have such reach and readership; few writers have such depth of erudition."" David Armitage, Harvard University ""Beyond States is a fascinating intellectual journey, written with flair and backed by immense knowledge of laws, commerce and nations. Pagden’s reading of history is sophisticated and counterintuitive. This is a must-read book for anyone trying to grasp the evolving nature of global politics."" Jan Zielonka, Universities of Venice and Oxford ""[A] timely and urgent call for rethinking our identities and notions of sovereignty in a world increasingly bound by common and mounting threats. . . . Pagden’s heroic vision may help set future generations free."" ""[A] timely and urgent call for rethinking our identities and notions of sovereignty in a world increasingly bound by common and mounting threats. . . . Pagden’s heroic vision may help set future generations free."" Tingis Magazine ""[A] very interesting book that is certainly worth reading."" Sociological Research Online