Making a Nation, Concise Edition focuses on the relationships that shape and define human identity—culture, race, gender, class and sectional relations. The text shows that politics and the economy do not simply shape, but in turn are shaped by, the lives and cultural values of ordinary men and women. This political economy approach allows students to see the links between the particular and the general, between large and seemingly abstract forces such as globalization and political struggle, and the everyday decisions made by ordinary men and women.