| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

James Muldoon. Empire and Order: The Concept of Empire, 800–1800. (Studies in Modern History.) New York: St. Martin's. 1999. Pp. viii, 209. $65.00.

As James Muldoon remarks in his preface, this is a short book on a vast topic. Muldoon suggests that three aspects of the history of the concept of empire deserve greater attention: the variety over time and place in the meanings of the concept, the survival of empire into the early modern era, and the role of lawyers in developing ideas about empire. Six chapters move in roughly chronological order over the book's thousand-year range, with enough narrative to carry the reader through, although this work reads as much like a meditation on key issues as a survey of imperial concepts. 1

At the heart of debates about empire is the question of the relationship between secular and religious power. Muldoon begins, inevitably, with the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III and demonstrates how much subsequent debate, although clearly influenced by historical circumstance, actually revolved around a continuing discussion as to the significance of that event, with Carolingian and Hohenstaufen emperors playing key roles, especially as they tried to deal with the disruptions caused by succession and inheritance. . . .

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