Before the State: Systemic Political Change in the West from the Greeks to the French Revolution

Osiander, Andreas

ISBN 10: 0198294514 / ISBN 13: 9780198294511

Published by Oxford University Press, 2007

About this Item

As new copy. No additions.

Seller Inventory # 044378

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Before the State: Systemic Political Change in the West from the Greeks to the French Revolution
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198294514
• ISBN 13: 9780198294511
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Treating western civilization as a single political system, the book charts systemic structural change from the origins of western civilization in the pre-Christian Greek world to about 1800, when the onset of industrialization began to create the conditions in which the state as we know it could function. It explains structural change in terms of both the political ideas of each period and in terms of the material constraints and opportunities (e.g. ecological and technological factors) that impacted on those ideas and which constitute a major cause of change. However, although material factors are important, ultimately it is the ideas that count--and indeed the words with which they were communicated when they were current: since political structures only exist in people's heads, to understand past political structures it is imperative to deal with them literally on their own terms, to take those terms seriously.

About the Author

Andreas Osiander studied international relations, history, and economics at Tübingen University, at the Institut d´Etudes Politiques de Paris ("Sciences Po") and at Oxford University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1992. Having held teaching and research posts at Oxford University, the Humboldt University, Berlin, and the University of Tilburg, he is currently lecturer in international relations at Leipzig University.