ABSTRACT
In 1974, English sociologist Perry Anderson published two books: Passages from Antiquity (1974a) and Lineages of the Absolutist State (1974b). In these two works, Anderson introduced a historical-materialist analysis of the course of events that over time led ‘the West’ to capitalism and to what he would probably refer to as bourgeois democracy. Time was ripe for such a Marxist interpretation of European state formation, and, with these two books, Anderson made a significant impact on the fields of history, political science, and sociology. For example, Charles Tilly (1990) started with a quote from Anderson’s book, which is presented on the next page, when he attempted a similar analysis of the development in Europe (see Chapter 9).
