Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Financial Times Best Summer Book"
"A Financial Times Best Book of the Year- History"
"The origins of the modern European state are conventionally traced to the era between 1500 and 1800. Grzymała-Busse makes a convincing case that we should go several centuries back and look at the way that rivalries between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire and other trends framed the emergence of European states."
---Tony Barber, Financial Times"Carefully crafted." * Choice *
"Grzymała-Busse . . . foregrounds the medieval church as the primary actor in the state-building process. Her arguments rest on a masterly synthesis of pertinent secondary literature coupled with innovative statistical representations." * Choice *
"[
Sacred Foundations] offers a fresh and innovative perspective on the process of state formation in Europe. Even more notably, it places a significant emphasis on the pivotal role of religion in forming the very institutions that continue to shape our world today."
---Farah Adeed, Reading Religion"One of my favorite books . . . Grzymala-Busse [
sic] provides a clear argument with details that make the reader want to know more. This is all the more impressive considering the topic is largely unfamiliar to most audiences. It’s a great book for anyone interested in the history behind modern representative democracy."
---Justin Kempf, Democracy Paradox
