On the Medieval Origins of the Modern State

Joseph R. Strayer (1904-87) was the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. His books include The Middle Ages, Western Europe in the Middle Ages, and Feudalism. Charles Tilly (1929-2008) was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. William Chester Jordan is professor of history at Princeton University. He is the author of From England to France: Felony and Exile in the High Middle Ages (Princeton).

• Forewords vii Preface xxvii Chapter I 3 Chapter II 57 Chapter III 89 Index 113

"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