本书为菲利普·内莫《古典与中世纪政治思想史》的第三卷。作者系法国当代著名哲学、政治学教授，毕业于法国圣克鲁高师，现为巴黎高等商学院一欧洲管理学院的教授兼巴黎高等商学院经济哲学研究中心的负责人。1998年，《古典与中世纪政治思想史》作为“基础丛书”的分册出版。此后，本书与该丛书中2002年出版的《现当代政治思想史》组合为“战车（Quadrige）丛书”。自此以后，“政治观念史教程”便成为法国各个大学、研究机构经典的教学用书。 本书首先详尽地论述了居住于古代近东地区的希伯来人的历史，以及包含在他们的古代经典中的政治思想。作者认为希伯来人的古代经典中的政治思想迥异于古代希腊、罗马人的政治思想，由于经历了中世纪，来自“耶路撒冷”的新的道德因素与来自雅典和罗马的公民遗产终于真正融合在一起；于是欧洲致力于科学及社会进步的现代才有可能取得长足进步，并以自由民主制为典范组织起来，国家的权力受到限定与限制。本书最值得瞩目之处在于作者对《圣经》中所包含的政治思想的详细、深入而准确的论述。

'Hugely impressive... Wilson is an assured guide through the millennium-long labyrinth of papal-imperial relations' Literary Review

A great, sprawling, ancient and unique entity, the Holy Roman Empire, from its founding by Charlemagne to its destruction by Napoleon a millennium later, formed the heart of Europe. It was a great engine for inventions and ideas, it was the origin of many modern European states, from Germany to the Czech Republic, its relations with Italy, France and Poland dictated the course of countless wars - indeed European history as a whole makes no sense without it.

In this strikingly ambitious book, Peter H. Wilson explains how the Empire worked. It is not a chronological history, but an attempt to convey to readers why it was so important and how it changed over its existence. The result is a tour de force - a book that raises countless questions about the nature of political and military power, about diplomacy and the nature of European civilization and about the legacy of the Empire, which has continued to haunt its offspring, from Imperial and Nazi Germany to the European Union.

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill—and be killed—for their faith, the Reformation tore the western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's history brilliant re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars and politicians, from the zealous Luther to the radical Loyola, from the tortured Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

Weaving together the many strands of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, ranging widely across Europe and even to the New World, MacCulloch also reveals as never before how these upheavals affected everyday lives—overturning ideas of love, sex, death and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.