I came across “From Viking Stronghold to Christain Kingdom: State formation in Norway” by Sverre Bagge. I really enjoy the approach he takes in analyzing this particular topic, looking at the external and internal factors along with geographical factors etc. More of a materialist conception of history than I’ve been able to find and I’ve found some extremely useful concepts so far reading this book.
Are there any good recommendations for this kind of materialist approach to state formation in other regions like Germany, Afghanistan, Syria, Russia, China etc. really any region. I’m more interested in early periods around the 10th century, but anything is good.
I know it’s a broad question, I’m really curious in state formation and want to learn more on how it developed around the world so anything to get me in that direction is useful!
Afghanistan, Syria
I can point you to some examples of books and articles that might be interesting to the Middle East generally, particularly to early Islam.
Journal articles:
For a good summary of the state of the debate on early Islamic state formation see Robert Hoyland's "New Documentary Texts and the Early Islamic State” in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
This article compares contrasting approaches in conclusions in, among other important articles that are also worth reading:
"The Formation of the Islamic State" by Fred Donner in Journal of the American Oriental Society
"A Syrian Coinage of Mu'awiya?" by Clive Foss in Revue Numismatique
"Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: The First Seventy Years" by Jeremy Johns in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
A couple of these produced books that while not specifically focused on state formation as these articles are certainly cover the relevant topics in more detail including Hoyland's In God's Path and Donner's Muhammad and the Believers.
One of the earlier examples of books that engage in the source issues for why this is as difficult to answer as it is is Patricia Crone's Slaves on Horses. Crone, while writing 40 years ago, has the advantage of being awfully fun to read, including as I re-skim through the book now a rather amusing brief comparison between the emergence of Islam and Iceland.
In a more modern context I might point you to something like Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East, the essays of which might point you to work by others that would be relevant to further reading.
Likewise most of the authors I've pointed to you here are generally good writers of footnotes that can lead in interesting directions.
My current area of study is focused largely on the nomads of the steppe as well as the history of Persia (the two are quite interlinked as you may imagine) and two of my favorite books covering the material you’re discussing are:
A History of Hungary by Pete F Sugar
and
Empire of the Mind (or simply A History of Iran) by Michael Axworthy.
There are certainly books devoted to the formation of nearly every state in the modern world as well as those of a bygone era. May you forever seek to expand your mind!