In search of an explanation of how a sense of ethnic identity evolves to create the concept of nation, Armstrong analyzes Islamic and Christian cultures from antiquity to the nineteenth century. He explores the effects of institutions--the city, imperial polity, bureaucratic imperatives of centraliz[...]

Assembled in honour of John H. A. Munro (University of Toronto), the volume groups nineteen original studies by a diversified panel of scholars. The essays explore late medieval market mechanisms and associated institutional, fiscal and monetary, organizational, decision-making, legal and ethical is[...]