The Rhyme and Reason of Politics in Early Modern Europe: Collected Essays of Herbert H. Rowen (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées Book 132)

Herbert Rowen has always insisted that historians don't need biographers. Outside "a small circle of family, friends and students," what matters most is not the individual but his or her work.' Thus the main purpose of the present volume is to highlight Professor Rowen's contributions to the political history of early modem Europe. Part I includes assessment of his work by others, while Parts ll-V contain examples of his best articles, papers, and reviews, some published here for the first time, most previously hard-to-get. These essays not only add substantively to our understanding of early modem politics, but treat both implicitly and explicitly the historian's task per se. Hence, this is not biography, much less "innocuous laudation" or hagiography, which Herb would not forgive. Yet it is only fitting that someone who lays so much stress on the human side of History should by way of introduction have something said about his person as well as his work. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Herbert H. Rowen and the Tradition of Early Modern History in the U.S.....Pages 13-21 Herbert H. Rowen and the Dutch Republic....Pages 23-26 Selected Reviews of Rowen’s Major Books....Pages 27-41 Front Matter....Pages 43-43 The Dutch Revolt: What Kind of Revolution?....Pages 45-62 The Revolution That Wasn’t: The Coup D’État of 1650 in Holland....Pages 63-81 Lieuwe Van Aitzema: A Soured but Knowing Eye....Pages 83-97 John De Witt: The Makeshift Executive in a “Ständestaat”....Pages 99-107 Management of Estates in the Seventeenth Century: John De Witt, The States of Holland and the States General....Pages 109-119 John De Witt and the Triple Alliance....Pages 121-138 The Peace of Nijmegen: De Witt’s Revenge....Pages 139-147 Front Matter....Pages 149-149 Arnauld De Pomponne: Louis XIV’s Moderate Minister....Pages 151-170 Louis XIV and Absolutism....Pages 171-183 “L’état C’Est à Moi”: Louis XIV and the State....Pages 185-198 A Second Thought on Locke’s First Treatise ....Pages 199-202 Front Matter....Pages 203-203 Proto-Jacobinism in the Dutch Republic....Pages 205-213 The Union of Utrecht and the Articles of Confederation, the Batavian Constitution and the American Constitution: A Double Parallel....Pages 215-227 John Adams’ Vision of the Dutch Republic....Pages 229-242 Front Matter....Pages 243-243 A Sketch of Pieter Geyl....Pages 245-251 The Historical Work of Pieter Geyl....Pages 253-271 Front Matter....Pages 243-243 William F. Church: A Historian’s Historian....Pages 273-279 Selected Reviews by Herbert H. Rowen....Pages 281-306 Back Matter....Pages 307-325 This volume brings together the best essays and reviews of Herbert H. Rowen, professor emeritus of Rutgers University, foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and one of the first important English-speaking historians of the Dutch Republic since John Lothrop Motley. Many of the essays, though published previously, have not been readily available, while several appear here for the first time. They include close analysis of the Dutch Republic, French absolutism, the eighteenth-century Republic and the Atlantic Revolutions, and direct and indirect commentary on the task of the historian more generally. Also included are three essays and several reviews about the work of Herbert Rowen, which assess his particular contribution to historical studies. The leading characteristics of that work are reflected in the title of this collection: clarity and ease of expression, rigor of thought, and a focus on the intersection of political thought and practice in the early modern period