Since Charles Tilly’s claim that “war made the state,” scholars have viewed the bellicist account of state formation through a European lens. In Europe, war drove rulers to tax, conscript, and build bureaucracies, culminating in powerful states. Yet Latin America's wars were thought to be too infrequent and externally financed to foster state capacity. Bringing War Back In (Cambridge University Press, 2024) shows that Latin America faced intensive warfare in the nineteenth-century, which shaped state development, not through mobilization alone but via the long-term effect of war outcomes. Victorious states legitimized wartime institutions, consolidating state capacity, while defeated states suffered lasting decline. Leveraging statistics and archival evidence the book shows how international threats systematically triggered state building and how victors and losers were set into divergent paths that rigidified in a peaceful twentieth century. Because all Latin American states survived their wars, and experienced then a long-lasting peace in the twentieth century, this region allows for a complete understanding of bellicist theory that considers the post-war phase in the long run. Overall, the book offers a new and compelling explanation for the levels of state capacity (and development) that we see today both within Latin America and beyond.
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Praise
"Hands down the best social science work I have read in some time. Theoretically ambitious and consequential, empirically savvy and persuasive, substantively rich and razor-sharp. A must-read for students of war and state-building and for everyone looking for exemplary social science." Stathis Kalyvas
"I found the brilliant arguments of Bringing War Back In to be simultaneously challenging, historically enriching, and ultimately convincing. This book achieves the highest level of analytic sophistication and methodological rigor. Luis Schenoni has produced nothing short of a modern-day comparative-historical masterpiece." James Mahoney
"The disillusionment with democracy and the incidence of populism in Latin America today is tied to the weakness of state institutions there. This book provides a new and powerful explanation for how the continent ended up like this. The theory has broad implications for the world we are living in today." James Robinson Nobel Prize in Economics 2024
"This is the most ambitious work on state formation to date. Schenoni’s classical bellicist theory offers a refined universal model where state formation follows the rhythm of victories and defeats. He challenges conventional anti-bellicist views on Latin America, demonstrating that nineteenth-century wars made these states." Victoria Hui
"Schenoni draws on his mastery of comparative sociological analysis to examine how war outcomes shaped state formation in the region. Schenoni’s study adds a valuable chapter to our knowledge of these dynamics in the modern world. His immense knowledge of Latin American history alone makes this a wonderful read." Sidney Tarrow
"This is a deep and brilliant analysis of the role of war in state building, not just in Latin America, but with wider implications for bellicist theory. Schenoni’s focus on outcomes is a great innovation and provides critical insights into the links between military and political development. A very important and timely contribution." Miguel Centeno
"Schenoni goes beyond Tilly to Hintze and Weber, excavating classical bellicist theory to argue and demonstrate that it’s war victory, not war preparation, that best explains state-building – and not simply because losers go extinct. In his empirical battle to revitalize bellicist theory in Latin America, Schenoni emerges similarly victorious." Dan Slater
"Schenoni’s book is outstanding. Against most of the conventional wisdom, he shows that Latin America had many wars and often highly violent and consequential ones in the 19th century. Schenoni refines Tilly’s classic work by arguing that it is just the victors of intercountry war, not the losers, who embark on successful state building. The book is an exemplary model of multi-methods research." Scott Mainwaring
"Just when you thought there was little more to say about war and state building, along comes Bringing War Back In. Schenoni has written a truly impressive book that offers a host of insights on that important subject and shows in great deal how war helped make the state in Latin America, a region where one might think that argument does not apply."
John J. Mearsheimer