The Myth of Absolutism: Change & Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy

By Nicholas Henshall

Book Overview

Conventionally, absolutism'' in early-modern Europe has suggested unfettered autocracy and despotism -- the erosion of rights, the centralisation of decision-making, the loss of liberty. Everything, in a word, that was un-British but characteristic of ancien-regime France. Recently historians have questioned such comfortably simplistic views. This lively investigation of absolutism'' in action -- continent-wide but centred on a detailed comparison of France and England -- dissolves the traditional picture to reveal a much more complex reality; and in so doing illuminates the varied ways in which early-modern Europe was governed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B004H48AVG
• ISBN13: 9780582056176
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"