"Precise, well-documented... [On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State] is full of essential matter about how states as we know them came into being, and is particularly good on the root questions... How and why did states begin to imagine themselves as sovereign? And: how does a policy maker get a bureaucracy to follow through?"--New Republic "[Strayer] brilliantly traces the developments of the modern state from the medieval kingdoms of Europe."--Library Journal "A distinguished book... The elegant and fastidious style should not blind the reader to the lifetime of learning; in some ways the book is deceptively simple, but actually it is a profound and carefully thought out treatise."--Choice