A liberal state emerges, 1780-1840 -- The states and their police power, 1790s-1920s -- An improvisational liberal state, 1860-1920 -- World War I : crisis and resurgence -- Money, parties, and extra-constitutional government, 1830-1930 -- From populism to the iron triangle : building the agricultural state, 1880-1940 -- From Gilded Age strikes to the treaty of Detroit : the challenge of labor, 1880-1960 -- Leviathan rising, 1945-1970 -- Breaking the power of the states, 1960-1980 -- Leviathan besieged, 1980-2015.

A liberal central state emerges -- The states and their police power -- Strategies of liberal rule -- Lessons of total war -- Parties, money, corruption -- Agrarian protest and the new liberal state -- Reconfiguring labor-capital relations -- An era of near-permanent war -- Breaking the power of the states -- Conservative revolt.