"The most forceful and original mind to confront, demask and anatomise the British state." --Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books "A luminous guide to the morbidities unleashed by the relentless machinery of post-imperial decline." --Paul Gilroy "Tom Nairn pioneered critical retrospect of the United Kingdom, and scandalised people by looking forward calmly to its disintegration." --Perry Anderson "A creative intellectual toolkit for a political emergency, assisting Scots, Welsh and English democrats alike to finally break the chains of Westminster." --Hilary Wainwright "Densely and brilliantly argued . original and perceptive." -- Economist "Burning-glass of a mind . disconcerting in its withering contempt not only for the British state but for everything associated with it.

" -- Guardian "Vitriolic wit . The method is resolutely materialist." -- Time Out "The intellectual godfather of modern Scottish nationalism." -- Herald.