Research Catalog

Title

European political thought, 1600-1700 / W.M. Spellman.

Author

Spellman, W. M.

Publication

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 208 pages; 22 cm

Summary

• The European seventeenth century saw the seeming resolution of two great conflicts. Through the nightmares of the Thirty Years War and the British civil wars, the murderous religious hatreds that had dominated the previous period finally burnt themselves out.
• Through the growing power of the centralized state, monarchs seemed to be able (with striking exceptions) to hold the reins to even greater power at the cost of semi-democratic institutions. This triumph of Absolutism (personified most clearly by Louis XIV) seemed to be complete and unassailable, and the handful of Protestant powers who offered an alternative model (the United Provinces and England) were essentially on the defensive.
• Dr Spellman studies all the great political theorists of the century (dominated inevitably by Hobbes) and also some of the lesser known, occasional writers and pamphleteers. This book will be invaluable for anyone studying seventeenth-century European history - it allows those studying the thought of the period to understand the historical context, and those studying the military and political events to understand their intellectual underpinning.

Subject

Political science > Europe > History > 17th century

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-201) and index.

Contents

1. Civil Authority in an Unfamiliar Setting -- 2. Contours of Absolute Monarchy -- 3. Constitutions and Consent -- 4. Republicanism Rekindled -- 5. The Emergence of the Modern State -- Conclusion: Exit Divinity.

ISBN

• 031221877X (cloth)
• 0312218796 (pbk.)

LCCN

98028242

OCLC

ocm39360794

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries