This book appeals to anyone interested in ethnicity and nationalism and the origins of modern ethnic and national identities. It shows that state efforts at nation-building are less important in promoting assimilation than industrialization, which spurs the formation of broader identities via the declining value of rural land.

"Industrialization and Assimilation is among the first books to focus on the process of ethnic identity change in a broad context. Green's evidence causally explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labor and removing people from the "idiocy of rural life," industrialization is a powerful agent for making societies more ethnically homogenous. More specifically, the author argues that industrialization lowers the relative value of rural land, leading people to identify less with narrow rural identities in favor of broader identities that can aid them navigate the formal urban economy. Using case studies ranging from mid-20th century Turkey to contemporary Botswana, Somalia, and Uganda, as well as examples of Native Americans in the United States and the Måaori in New Zealand, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to establish the relationship between industrialization and ethnic homogenization"--