Book

Prince, Pen, and Sword. Eurasian Perspectives

The final synthesis to the NWO-project 'Eurasian Empires. Integration Processes and Identity Formations'

Author

Jeroen Duindam and Maaike van Berkel (eds.)

Date

09 February 2018

Links

Open Access

Prince, Pen, and Sword is the final synthesis of the NWO-project Eurasian Empires, conducted at University Leiden, Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Amsterdam.
    This book offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. The four core chapters of Prince, Pen, and Sword zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia.
    The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialized literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.