1/17/23

An excellent survey: deeply researched, well organized, clearly written. One caveat, although not at all a disqualification, is that it was published in 1965. ( )

Another impressive work on medieval political thought by Ullmann. It's nice to see how he extends the concept of "political thought" far beyond written works. As he says, "for large stretches of the medieval period the law is the only means which allows historians to recognize pure political doctrine" (p.15) In the first half he discusses the biblical and historical interpretations that influenced papal law and imperial law. In doing so he explains how a "descending" theory of government came to dominate through most of this period. He then moves on to the "ascending" theory and explains how the revival of Aristotle and the social structures of feudalism led to a viable idea of a sovereign people by the end of the Middle Ages. All in all a very informative and inspirational book for people interested in the history of European political ideas and institutions.

History of political thought from the 5th to the 12th centuries in Europe. This covers the rise of the Roman Church and the Papacy. Extensive use of inflated pseudoscholarly language and bloated cliches make this a pretty hard slog generally, but it's worth the effort. ( )