Dynasty: A Very Short Introduction

Description

Combining history and anthropology in a global examination of families and power, this book connects medieval kings and queens to contemporary family business empires. Its sweeping overview of five millennia of rulership uncovers recurring predicaments of bloodline succession, and sheds light on divergence and change in dynastic practice.

• Combines history and anthropology in a global examination of families on the throne
• Discusses dynastic impulses and practices in modern society
• Offers a unique examination of dynasty from a long term perspective
• Shows how personal idiosyncracies attributed to royals can better be understood as structural aspects of dynastic power
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Jeroen Duindam, Professor of History, Leiden University

Jeroen Duindam is Professor of History and Chair for Early Modern History at the University of Leiden. He has published extensively on the history of courts and rulers, initially focusing on Europe, before gradually extending his research interests to include Asia and Africa. Between 2011 and 2016 he led a prestigious Dutch research programme on Eurasian empires, and he currently leads a research project on 'monarchy in turmoil', which examines the response of rulers in the Netherlands and Germany to reform and revolution between 1780 and 1820. Duindam is the editor for the series Rulers and Elites (Brill), and has authored three monographs: Dynasties: A Global History of Power 1300-1800 (Cambridge 2016), Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europe's Dynastic Rivals, c. 1550-1780 (Cambridge 2003), and Myths of Power: Norbert Elias and the Early Modern European Court (Amsterdam 1995), all of which have helped in shaping the comparative study of courts and rulers.

Table of Contents

1:Dynasties past and present
2:Shaping the family
3:Paterfamilias: its hard to be the boss
4:Women and dynastic power
5:Embedding the family
6:Persistence and change
7:The dynastic impulse in the modern world
8:Epilogue
All in the family: conclusions
Further reading
Index