Europe was almost always a loose-knit ‘confederation’ of culturally similar states in whose mutual relations economic strength was only one of several important variables. Religious affiliation, dynastic allegiance, ideology and ethnic cohesion interacted unpredictably with economic forces to ensure the survival of some political and cultural units

There are two additional lessons here. First, a generation may continue to influence public opinion long after its days are over. Second, an established public opinion may get carried into the future by generations that bear no responsibility for its inception.

So do activities and institutions as varied as tax collection, cinemas, public beaches, prisons, offices and factories. The reasons for this convergence are many: they include both functional and practical constraints, on the one hand, and suggestibility and conformism of the kind described above, on the other, including the influence of more prest