Monarchies 1000–2000
William M. SpellmanSurveys an influential form of government whose legitimacy rests on age-old custom, heredity and/or religious sanction. Comparative in approach, this text establishes connections between monarchy as idea and practice in a variety of cultural contexts across the last millennium.
Monarchies 1000–2000 surveys a form of government whose legitimacy rests not on voluntary consensus but on age-old custom, heredity and/or religious sanction. Global in scope and comparative in approach, W. M. Spellman’s survey establishes connections between monarchy as idea and practice in a variety of historical and cultural contexts across a millennium when the system was without serious rival.
Spellman examines the intellectual assumptions behind different models of monarchy, tracing the ways in which each of these assumptions shifted in response to historical factors. While no human institution has retreated as rapidly in the modern period, monarchy’s remarkable longevity invites us to weigh the significance of hierarchy, subordination and dependence as constants of the human experience.
Surveys an influential form of government whose legitimacy rests on age-old custom, heredity and/or religious sanction. Comparative in approach, this text establishes connections between monarchy as idea and practice in a variety of cultural contexts across the last millennium.
Monarchies 1000–2000 surveys a form of government whose legitimacy rests not on voluntary consensus but on age-old custom, heredity and/or religious sanction. Global in scope and comparative in approach, W. M. Spellman’s survey establishes connections between monarchy as idea and practice in a variety of historical and cultural contexts across a millennium when the system was without serious rival.
Spellman examines the intellectual assumptions behind different models of monarchy, tracing the ways in which each of these assumptions shifted in response to historical factors. While no human institution has retreated as rapidly in the modern period, monarchy’s remarkable longevity invites us to weigh the significance of hierarchy, subordination and dependence as constants of the human experience.
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Although relatively more attention is paid to Europe than to the other regions, important insights on all areas are included. This book should be of interest to students of anthropology and sociology as well as government and history.
'Choice
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Overall, it is difficult to do justice in a short review to the wealth of material contained in this book . . . as a guide to the topic, it will be warmly welcomed.
'Millennium
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The book presents a convincing portrait of the large role monarchs and monarchy have played in the development of human political organizations, and would provide an excellent resource for teaching or a beginning point for discussion.
'Sixteenth Century Journal
Preface
Introduction: The Idea of Monarchy
1. Asian Archetypes: Chinese Absolutism and Japanese Symbolism
2. Monarchy without Manuscripts: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas
3. Theocratic Monarchy: Byzantium and the Islamic Lands
4. The European Anomaly, 1000-1500
5. Monarchy and European Hegemony, 1500-1914
6. Endings and Remnants: Monarchy in the Twentieth Century
7. Monarchy and the State in the Twenty-First Century
References
Bibliography
Index
W. M. Spellman is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and author of many books including Monarchies, 1000-2000 (Reaktion, 2001), Uncertain Identity: International Migration since 1945 (Reaktion, 2008) and A Brief History of Death (Reaktion, 2014).
