Includes bibliographical references (p. 389-408) and index.

Introduction / Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayalı, and Eric Van Young -- The limits of Atlantic-world nationalism in a revolutionary age: imagined communities and lived communities in Mexico, 1810-1821 / Eric Van Young -- The great transformation of law and legal culture: "the public" and "the private" in the transition from empire to nation in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, 1750-1850 / Victor M. Uribe-Uran -- Selfhood and nationhood in Latin America: from colonial subject to democratic citizen / Carlos A. Forment -- Empires as prisons of nations versus empires as political opportunity structures: an exploration of the role of nationalism in imperial dissolutions in Europe / Ellen Comisso -- Changing modalities of empire: a comparative study of the Ottoman and Habsburg decline / Karen Barkey -- Dreams of empire, dreams of nations / Reșat Kasaba -- How the Qing became China / Joseph W. Esherick -- Going imperial: Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism and nationalisms in China and inner Asia / Uradyn E. Bulag -- The long road from empire: legacies of nation building in the Soviet successor states / Edward W. Walker -- Setting the political agenda: cultural discourse in the Estonian transition / Cynthia S. Kaplan -- Afterword: the return of empire? / Joseph W. Esherick.

Introduction / Joseph W. Esherick, Hasan Kayali, and Eric Van Young -- The limits of Atlantic-world nationalism in a revolutionary age: imagined communities and lived communities in Mexico, 1810-1821 / Eric Van Young -- The great transformation of law and legal culture: "the public" and "the private" in the transition from empire to nation in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, 1750-1850 / Victor M. Uribe-Uran -- Selfhood and nationhood in Latin America: from colonial subject to democratic citizen / Carlos A. Forment -- Empires as prisons of nations vs. empires as political opportunity structures: an exploration of the role of nationalism in imperial dissolutions in Europe / Ellen Comisso -- Changing modalities of empire: a comparative study of the Ottoman and Habsburg decline / Karen Barkey -- Dreams of empire, dreams of nations / Resat Kasaba -- How the Qing became China / Joseph W. Esherick -- Going imperial: Tibeto-Mongolian buddhism and nationalisms in China and inner Asia / Uradyn E. Bulag -- The long road from empire: legacies of nation-building in the Soviet successor states / Edward W. Walker -- The emergence of political agendas: the independence movement in Estonia in 1985-1991 / Cynthia S. Kaplan.