Bibliograph

The invention of power, popes, kings, and the birth of the West, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Type

Label

The invention of power, popes, kings, and the birth of the West, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The invention of power

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Sub title

popes, kings, and the birth of the West

Summary

This book solves one of the great puzzles of history: why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world? Political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita explains the consolidation of power in the West through a single, little noticed event: the 1132 Concordat of Worms. Bueno de Mesquita makes a deeply researched and persuasive case that the Concordat changed the terms of competition between churches and nation-states, incentivizing economic growth and benefiting citizens over kings and popes. In the centuries since, those countries that have had similar arrangements have been consistently better off than those that did not

Table Of Contents

Exceptionalism -- Two swords, one church -- The concordat game -- Secularism surges -- The road to prosperity -- The road to Papal serfdom and liberation -- The birth of states, the birthing of representative democracy -- Today

Classification