Monarchies 1000-2000

by Spellman, W. M.

• ISBN13: 9781780230504
• ISBN10: 1780230508
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-02
• Publisher: Reaktion Books

Summary

Monarchies 1000 2000surveys 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.

Author Biography

W. M Spellman is Professor of History and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Asheville,

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Introduction: The Idea of Monarchy	p. 10
Asian Archetypes: Chinese Absolutism and Japanese Symbolism	p. 25
Monarchy without Manuscripts: Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas	p. 71
Theocratic Monarchy: Byzantium and the Islamic Lands	p. 105
The European Anomaly, 1000-1500	p. 147
Monarchy and European Hegemony, 1500-1914	p. 189
Endings and Remnants: Monarchy in the Twentieth Century	p. 225
Monarchy and the State in the Twenty-First Century	p. 269
References	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 295
Index	p. 304
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