The modern European state, defined by a continuous territory with a distinct borderline and complete external sovereignty, by the monopoly of every kind of legitimate use of force, and by a homogeneous mass of subjects each of whom has the same rights and duties, is the outcome of a thousand years of shifting political power and developing notions of the state. This major study, in the Origins of the Modern State in Europe series, sets out to examine the processes of state formation and the creation of power élites. A team of leading European historians explores the dominant institutions and ideologies of the past, and their role in the creation of the contemporary nation-state.

All the chapters are highly informative, but some authors succeed particularly well in presenting a problem-orientated comparative conspectus of the relevant literature. * Roland Axtmann, Universities of Aberdeen and Heidelberg, The Historical Association 1998 *