Absolutism in Central Europe

This volume is about the form of European monarchy known as absolutism, how it was defined by contemporaries, how it emerged and developed, and how it has been interpreted by historians, political and social scientists. Absolutism was once a certainty. It was seen as a distinct form of monarchy that dominated the European continent and defined an entire age. It co-ordinated and centralized power, pushing political development towards the modern state. It assisted in the monumental change from feudalism to capitalism and it was characterized by self-confident monarchs, such as Louis XIV. This book investigates how scholars from a variety of disciplines have defined and explained political development across what was formerly known as the "age of absolutism". It assesses whether the term still has utility as a tool of analysis and it explores the wider ramifications of the process of state-formation from the experience of central Europe from the early 17th century to the start of the 19th.

"In a tightly argued historiographical introduction, Wilson points out that it is an abstraction that has been readily employed by generations of scholars without any serious attempt at definition. He attempts to fill this gap by representing asolutism as a distinct stage in the state-building process, during which monarchs used court display to project an image of power and majesty that mixed hard substance with mere pretension. The author reserves a special niche for the period of "enlightened absolutism," which effectively fortified the region's monarchs from the appeal of the French Revolution. This is a very well written and intelligent essay, once which might, however, challenge the analytical skills of the average university student.."-"C. Ingrao, Purdue University, July 2001