u/SAURI23

I was thinking today about how states have changed through history. In the early Middle Ages, states were not much more than glorified robber bands who happened to be powerful enough to tax people. Slowly they became more sophisticated to account for the needs of war, and at some point they were doing much more than war and had a hand in the economy, healthcare, education, everything. My question is: how on earth did states evolve from simple war mechanisms to "transcendent" entities that people are ready to die for? Also book recommendations on the subject would be nice :)