Coercion, capital and European states, A.D. 990-1992 (review)

254 Short notices which tbe audience beard and read tbe poet is valuable. Norman Simms English Department Waikato University Tilly, Charles, Coercion, capital and European states, A.D. 990-1992, rev ed., Cambridge Mass and Oxford, Blackwell, 1992; paper; pp. xi, 271; R.R.P SAUS39.95 [distributed in Australia by Allen and Unwin] The modifications to the earlier editions of this work are minor, concerned mainly with corrections to errors and an updating of the bibliography. The main thesis, which seeks to put today's states and the role of the military into the long perspective of history, remains fundamentally unchanged. Tilly seeks to establish a grand global framework to explain the overall form which European states have in common. In this he joins the urban systematizers such as D e Vries, Hohenberg and Lees, Bairoch and Joseph Konvitz since he considers cities a critical element in state-formation. As with most of Tilly's work this is sociology meeting history. His objective is to account for the great variation over time and space in the kinds of states that have prevailed in Europe, which is defined broadly to include tbe Nordic states and Russia, since 990. TiUy divides this European world into capital-intensive areas, which saw the growth of cities, and coercion-intensive areas where there were few cities and big landlords. He sees these different areas as following different patterns and he maps actual states across a grid according to the strength of the variables of capital and coercion in then development attempting to demonstrate that states move towards a similarfinalposition by distinctively different trajectories. He believes that tbe regional patterns were dictated by the dominant rulers in the particular areas, which limited the strategies available to lesser powers. He tries to demonstrate the relationship of coercion to areas of low urban development but high state apparatus by using Nordic countries such as Denmark and Sweden; although, be admits that Poland will notfitinto this framework. The chronology identifies various moments of change. The late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries are shown to be the moment when 'universal' peace treaties show Europe becoming conscious of its common European nature and developing a state system which had not existed in 1000. This competition between states which resulted in mutual influence Short notices -s was critical in state-formation. Paradoxically, in his view, the war cult which dominated the state led to the civilianization of domestic politics because bureaucracy needed to handle theresourcesnecessary for war. Sybil M . Jack Department of History University of Sydney White, Hugh, trans., Ancrene Wisse: guide for anchoresses, London, Penguin, 1993; paper; pp. xxix, 234; R.R.P. AUSS12.95 This new translation of Ancrene Wisse offers a readily accessible and reasonably priced text of an important Middle English spiritual treatise. White's translation is smooth and pleasant to the ear, while remaining faithful to both the vocabulary and the syntax of the original. H e isrightto suggest that any stylistic awkwardness that might be felt by a m o d e m reader 'may perhaps disappear if w e think of ourselves as reading thetextout loud, as the early audience ofAncrene Wisse would probably have done' (p. xxiv). The notes, which, as the editor states, rely heavily on the translation by Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson, are helpful, offering both factual information and interpretative comment. Footnotes are restricted to translations of Latin quotations from thetext.Directions for further reading are succint but adequate. The introducation is in two parts: tbefirstdealing generally with the anchoritic ideal and the practical life of the achorite, the second with Ancrene Wisse in particular, covering its provenance, date and style, its influence and popularity in the Middle Ages, and its place in literary history. Although the book will be a welcome addition to the range of material available to students of medieval spirituality, it is also aimed at general modem readers who mayfind,as the introduction suggests, 'then own moral embarrassments clearly reflected and sharply anatomized in thetext...[and] effective help offered for these difficulties' (p. xxiii). Elizabeth Moores Department of English University of Queensland. ...