According to a commonplace narrative, the rise of modern political thought in the West resulted from secularization—the exclusion of religious arguments from political discourse. But in this pathbreaking work, Eric Nelson argues that this familiar story is wrong. Instead, he contends, political thought in early-modern Europe became less, not more, secular with time, and it was the Christian encounter with Hebrew sources that provoked this radical transformation. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian scholars began to regard the Hebrew Bible as a political constitution designed by God for the children of Israel. Newly available rabbinic materials became authoritative guides to the institutions and practices of the perfect republic. This thinking resulted in a sweeping reorientation of political commitments. In the book’s central chapters, Nelson identifies three transformative claims introduced into European political theory by the Hebrew revival: the argument that republics are the only legitimate regimes; the idea that the state should coercively maintain an egalitarian distribution of property; and the belief that a godly republic would tolerate religious diversity. One major consequence of Nelson’s work is that the revolutionary politics of John Milton, James Harrington, and Thomas Hobbes appear in a brand-new light. Nelson demonstrates that central features of modern political thought emerged from an attempt to emulate a constitution designed by God. This paradox, a reminder that while we may live in a secular age, we owe our politics to an age of religious fervor, in turn illuminates fault lines in contemporary political discourse.

Eighteenth-century Spain drew on the Enlightenment to reconfigure its role in the European balance of power. As its force and its weight declined, Spanish thinkers discouraged war and zealotry and pursued peace and cooperation to reconfigure the international Spanish Empire.

This new publication constitutes the second volume in the widely-acclaimed Sources in European Political History. This latest volume provides a wide-ranging guide to the surviving private papers of over one thousand statesman, politicians and diplomats who played a part in the shaping of modern Europe.

This work, the first of a two-volume set, covers the history of Europe since the Renaissance. It emphasizes not only cultural and social history, but also examines important political and diplomatic events.

Highlighting the most important events, ideas, and individuals that shaped modern Europe, A Concise History of Modern Europe provides a readable, succinct history of the continent from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution to the present day. Avoiding a detailed, lengthy chronology, the book focuses on key events and ideas to explore the causes and consequences of revolutions—be they political, economic, or scientific; the origins and development of human rights and democracy; and issues of European identity. Any reader needing a broad overview of the sweep of European history since 1789 will find this book, published in a first edition under the title Revolutionary Europe, an engaging and cohesive narrative.

1. focus on political communication and microhistories through juxtaposing and comparing Chinese and European sources, processes and historiographies 2. co-authorship by Chinese and European expert historians 3. epilogues by Chinese and European expert historians

Taking a thematic approach, Derek Urwin addresses the major political and economic developments in western Europe since World War II, right up to the present day. The book covers issues and developments in national politics, and the movement towards greater unity in Western Europe and the role of Europe in global politics and in the international economy. The text has been revised throughout and updated to take account of the political consequences of the ending of the Cold War and the troubled progress of European integration since Maastricht. The Fifth Edition has lost nothing of its predecessor's clarity and accessibility and in its updated form will win the book a host of new admirers.