This sweeping book explores the profound shift in the way European kings and queens were regarded by their subjects between the Reformation and the Enlightenmen

In the tradition of Why Nations Fail, this book solves one of the great puzzles of history: Why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world?

"It is difficult to decide which is the more impressive: the authority and control with which Mr. Bendix writes of the traditions, the institutions, and the tec