This volume examines the ascendancy of France during the period 1648-1688.

V.1 The renaissance 1493-1520 -- V.2 The reformation 1520-1559 -- V.5 The ascendancy of France 1648-88. -- V.7 The old regime 1713-63. -- V.8 The American and French révolution 1763-93 -- V.9 war and peace in an age of Upheaval 1793-1830. -- V.10 The zenith of European power 1830-70. -- V.11 Material progress and world-wide problems 1870-1898. -- V.12 The era of violence 1898-1945.

What will the current global political order look like when American unipolarity ends? Historically, the power configurations of world political systems have been defined by four structures: multipolarity, tripolarity, bipolarity, and unipolarity. These concepts inform both the formulation and the analysis of short-term policies and long-term, grand strategies of powerful actors in the world political order and may be of profound importance to the future peace and stability of the global system. The concept of nonpolarity, however, has never been addressed as a possible or a potential structural formulation in the nomenclature of global political systems. This book provides a coherent conceptualization of nonpolarity and how diplomacy will operate in a more collective age, and fits into the ongoing discussion about the nature of the political world order as we approach the end of the "American century."

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This multi-disciplinary anthology explores the topic of violence from a wide variety of perspectives. It looks at state violence, anti-state violence and criminal violence such as armed robbery.

During the Cold War, nationalism fell from favour among theorists as an explanatory factor in history, as Marxists and liberals looked to class and individualism as the driving forces of change. The resurgence of nationalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, called for a reconsideration of the paradigm. Against Orthodoxy uses case studies from around the world to critically evaluate decades of new scholarship. The authors argue that theories of nationalism have ossified into a new set of orthodoxies. These overlook nationalism’s role as a generative force, one that reflects complex historical, political, and cultural arrangements that defy simplistic explanations.

Their mission was humble and simple: to reach the poor country people, who suffered from ignorance of their faith, a debased clergy, and poverty. In response, Vincent De Paul defined the vocation of his “Little Company” as preaching local missions for free, educating the clergy, and working to relieve the people’s poverty. Soon, however, this vocation was complicated by commands to minister to royal families, including Louis xiv of France and the kings and queens of Poland, which would embroil the Vincentians in international and ecclesiastical politics. In addition, they would begin dangerous foreign missions, such as ministering to the Christian captives of the Barbary pirates, the debased colonists and rebellious natives of Madagascar, and the vendetta-prone Corsicans. For the first time, modern readers have a thoroughly researched history based on original documents and the studies of numerous scholars, past and present. It portrays the Vincentians’ daily lives and describes their failings as well as their exalted acts of heroism. It also details the social and political milieus that conditioned their lives and work. It is an important, down-to-earth side of history not often told.

Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.

Portuguese Brazil

Papers from a conference held at Mount Kisco, N.Y., Feb. 1982, sponsored by the Committee on States and Social Structures, the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, and the Joint Committee on Western European Studies of the Social Science Research Council. Includes bibliographies and index.