Modernity at the Edge of EmpireChallenging much received wisdom about nation stateshow they form, what sustains them, why they failthis study of subaltern social groups in the Chachapoyas region of Peru analyzes the emergence of the modern nation state "from below." By approaching nation state formation from the perspective of the subaltern, the book offers a critique of scholarship that sees coercion and the imposition of social and cultural forms as the core of nation state