Mel Watkins is an iconic figure in the development of the "new" political economy in Canada. Since the 1960s he has combined scholarly writing with political activism for a range of issues, from Canada's economic dependency on the US to the role of social democratic parties to aboriginal rights.

Economic modernity is so closely associated with nationhood that it is impossible to imagine a modern state without an equally modern economy. Even so, most people would have difficulty defining a modern economy and its connection to nationhood. In Saving the Nation, Margherita Zanasi explores...