Absolutism

Absolutism in Central Europe is about how the European monarchy was defined by contemporaries, how it emerged and developed, and how it has been interpreted by historians and political and social scientists. It investigates how scholars from a variety of disciplines have defined and explained political development across what was formerly known as the 'age of absolutism'. It assesses whether the term still has utility as a tool of analysis and explores the wider ramifications of the process of state-formation from the experience of central Europe from the early seventeenth century to the start of the nineteenth.

No one has hitherto had the breadth of imagination and intellectual boldness to describe and analyse government throughout recorded history and throughout the world. This unique study of government is the culmination of the work of the late S. E. Finer, one of the leading political scientists of the twentieth century. Ranging over 5,000 years, from the Sumerian city state to the modern European nation state, five themes emerge: state-building, military formats, belief systems, social stratification, and timespan. The three volumes examine both representative and exceptional polities, and focus on political elites of different types. Empires, Monarchies, and the Modern State (Books Four and Five) opens with Tokugawa Japan and thence reviews the evidence of Ch'ing, Ottoman, and Mughal Empires, before turning to facets of the re-creation, `modernization', and transplantation of the European state model. It concludes with the synoptic review of `Pathways to the Modern State'. Professor Finer's cogent descriptive analysis offers both an invaluable reference resource and an exhilarating journey across time and space.

Class and State in Early Modern France explores the economic, social, ideological and political foundations of French Absolutism. David Parker's challenging interpretation presents French Absolutism as a remarkably successful attempt to preserve the political and ideological structures of the traditional order.This reassessment runs contrary to much revisionist historiography, rejecting the widespread tendency to treat French Absolutism either as an instrument of capitalism or political modernisation. It also discusses a number of contentious issues such as the agrarian foundations of capitalism, the relationship between class and status, as well as the structure and ideology of the absolute state itself. It will be of interest to early modern historians of France, Britain and Europe.

Seventeen fascinating essays on many aspects of the French Revolution. Soboul was chair of the History of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne for many years until his death in 1982. Maps. Glossary. Notes. Brief biography of the author.

This book--the sixth volume in The Great Cultural Eras of the Western World series--provides information on more than 400 individuals who created and played a role in the era's intellectual and cultural activity. The book's focus is on cultural figures--those whose inventions and discoveries contributed to the scientific revolution, those whose line of reasoning contributed to secularism, groundbreaking artists like Rembrandt, lesser known painters, and contributors to art and music.