Power and Persuasion ─ Essays on the Art of State Building in Honour of W. P. Blockmans

This festschrift in honor of scholar Wim Blockmans is edited by three of his former colleagues in medieval history at Leiden University, Hoppenbrouwers, Janse and Stein. The contributors are an impressive array of noted historians from all corners of Europe. The theme is the creation in Early Modern Europe of the centralized nation-state. The steps to this from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth are traced in Italy, Poland, France, Denmark, Spain, England and the one entity that is no longer a state, Burgundy, which is the subject of several essays especially concerning its tenure in the Netherlands. Several authors discuss the fine balance between the rulers and the ruled. Parliaments, counselors and administrators all had a say in what may have appeared to be the king's decision. The case of Pierre Lanchals demonstrates just how much power a subordinate could attain. The church as an example of state-building constitutes the final section, an interesting twist. Many of the essays deal with the concept of the state in the minds of the rulers and the citizens. Issues of war and trade seem to have intensified this. The spanner in the works, a people who are a nomadic nation under themselves, is treated in an article on the coming of the Gypsies to Europe. As a codicil, there is an essay on the current state of nations that lists the ways in which they are failing to live up to their social contract. Altogether, this is a fitting tribute to Blockmans' career. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Peter Hoppenbrouwers holds the chair of medieval history at Leiden University. Antheun Janse and Robert Stein are both senior lecturers in the Department of Medieval History at Leiden University. All three have written extensively on the political, social, and intellectual history of the Northern Netherlands in the Late Middle Ages.