The Introduction presents the volume’s global and historical problematics, and reviews key approaches in state theory, focusing on the development of and tensions between Weberian/institutionalist approaches and the variety of “cultural” approaches that descend through various pathways from the work of Antonio Gramsci on hegemony. Focusing on the engagement with these two broad traditions among historians of medieval, early modern, and modern state formations, we discuss the recent engagement of archaeologists with both of these approaches. We explore the possibility of hybrid Weberian-culturalist models, and close the Introduction with discussion of the theoretical approaches of the twenty-one substantive essays in the volume.