I am an anthropology and history student in university and have come into frequent contact with the idea of "the state." It seems that I have taken the idea of what the state is for granted, but after I read a little of Quentin Skinner's work, I looked deeper into what the state is. Quentin Skinner has a wonderful talk on YouTube about the concept of the state, but relating only to English schools of thought. I was wondering if anyone had any insight into the history of the idea of "the state," or how the state is understood today.