Book excerpt: In a new study of politogenesis state formation that will shake up the status quo, Peter Gelderloos cuts through inadequate theories of state-formation on both the right and the left to offer a new and innovative analysis that is as useful to academic theorists as it is to anarchists seeking to dismantle the institution. Where did the state come from? Where is it going? Worshiping Power discusses the answers given by historical materialism, geographical determinism and primitivism, showing that there are major problems with all of them.