Description: This important new book takes a fascinating thematic approach, providing a useful survey of the position and role of the nobility in the government of states in early modern Europe.
Review Quotes: "Zmora's short, stimulating essay in Routledge's "Historical Connections" series, while echoing some of Dewald's conclusions, is a tightly argued interpretation of the interrelationship of the evolution of the modern state, the monarchy, and the aristocracy. Briefly, the expensive and brutally competitive European state system shaped the structure of the nobility, assimilating them and allowing a means of exercising power and gaining wealth. Zmora carefully examines the chief states of western Europe, including the exceptional English situation. Based largely on European scholarship, this title is recommended for upper division students and above.."
-"D.C. Baxter, Ohio University, July 2001