Category Archives: State Development Theory

Pension Reform in France

The French government and its Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, have survived a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly. Borne heads a government led by President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party (formerly known as La République en Marche !). The no-confidence vote … Continue reading

Posted in Contemporary France, Crowd Studies, European History, European Studies, European Union, French History, Political Activism and Protest Culture, Political Culture, State Development Theory | Leave a comment

Queen Elizabeth II has Died

Queen Elizabeth II has died. I am not a royal family watcher, but this is clearly a major historical event in British, European, and World history. History professors, students, and researchers working on monarchy, court culture, state development, and empire … Continue reading

Posted in Court Studies, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, European Studies, History in the Media, Political Culture, State Development Theory, Strategy and International Politics, World History | Leave a comment

Femmes à la cour de France

Tracy Adams has published a review of a collective volume on Femmes à la cour de France, edited by Caroline zum Kolk and Kathleen Wilson. I was pleased to write an essay for this collective volume on noblewomen from the … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Conflict, Court Studies, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern France, Early Modern World, European History, European Wars of Religion, French History, French Wars of Religion, Gender and Warfare, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Paris History, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, State Development Theory, Warfare in the Early Modern World, Women and Gender History | Leave a comment

Is the United States Close to Civil War?

Dana Milbank explores this provocative question in an op-ed in the Washington Post. The op-ed focuses on political science methods for considering how civil wars start: “Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at the University of California at San … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Conflict, Crowd Studies, History in the Media, History of Violence, Political Activism and Protest Culture, Political Culture, Revolts and Revolutions, State Development Theory, United States History and Society, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Considering Civil Wars

Civil wars fracture political systems and rend societies, often leaving deep scars and traumatic memories that haunt generations. Yet civil wars often continue to be understood primarily through the lens of national historiographies that focus on nation-states and the history … Continue reading

Posted in Civil Conflict, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, History of the Western World, History of Violence, Political Culture, Revolts and Revolutions, State Development Theory, Strategy and International Politics, War and Society, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

Postdoctoral Fellowships on the European Fiscal-Military System

The Faculty of History at the University of Oxford is seeking six Research Associates to join the team from September 2019, or as soon as possible thereafter, for an ambitious 5-year multi-national research project. ‘The European Fiscal-Military System 1530-1870’ is funded … Continue reading

Posted in Archival Research, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, Empires and Imperialism, European History, Grants and Fellowships, History of Violence, Reformation History, Renaissance Art and History, State Development Theory, Strategy and International Politics, War and Society, War, Culture, and Society, Warfare in the Early Modern World | Leave a comment

Suffocating Democracy

Historian Christopher R. Browning (who is professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) just published a provocative essay on the suffocation of democracy in the United States, drawing comparisons between current American politics and the politics … Continue reading

Posted in European History, History in the Media, Political Culture, State Development Theory, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times

Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times, edited by Richard Avramenko and Ethan Alexander-Davey (Lexington Books, 2018) is currently being published. This collective volume examines elites, political culture, and political theory from a variety of perspectives. The book includes an essay I wrote … Continue reading

Posted in Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, French History, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Political Culture, State Development Theory | Leave a comment

H-France Forum on Fanny Cosandey’s Le Rang

The latest H-France Forum, volume 13, number 1, has been published online.   This issue of H-France Forum includes review essays on Fanny Cosandey’s Le rang. Préséances et hierarchies dans la France d’Ancien Régime (Paris: Gallimard, 2016). The forum on … Continue reading

Posted in Cultural History, Current Research, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, French History, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Political Culture, State Development Theory | Leave a comment

Cultures of Voting in Pre-Modern Europe

I am happy to report that my latest publication has been released, just in time for the new year.  Happy 2018! My chapter on “Municipal elections and contested religious space: electoral practices and confessional politics in Mediterranean France during the … Continue reading

Posted in Early Modern Europe, European History, European Wars of Religion, French Wars of Religion, Mediterranean World, Noble Culture and History of Elites, Political Culture, Religious Politics, Renaissance Art and History, State Development Theory | Leave a comment