For many years scholars have sought to explain why the European states which emerged in the period before the French Revolution developed along such different lines. Why did some become absolutist and others constitutionalist? What enabled some to develop bureaucratic administrative systems, while others remained dependent upon patrimonial practices? This book presents a new theory of state-building in medieval and early modern Europe. Ertman argues that two factors - the organisation of local government at the time of state formation and the timing of sustained geo-military competition - can explain most of the variation in political regimes and in state infrastructures found across the continent during the second half of the eighteenth century. Drawing on insights developed in historical sociology, comparative politics, and economic history, this book makes a compelling case for the value of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of political development.

托马斯·埃特曼(1959－)，出生于美国新泽西州，在纽约和德国完成中学教育。1981年和1990年分别获哈佛大学的哲学硕士、社会学博士学位，其博士论文的指导老师是西达·斯考切波。1990-2000年在哈佛大学政府系担任助理教授、副教授，2000年开始担任纽约大学社会学系的副教授，从事比较历史社会学、政治社会学、社会理论等方面的研究。《利维坦的诞生——中世纪及现代早期欧洲的国家与政权建设》1998年获得美国社会学协会巴林顿·摩尔奖。此外，还与他人合著《从蒙特韦德到布尔迪厄：意大利和法国的剧场与社会》(Opera and society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourctieu，Cam—bridge University Press 2007)。