Ertman presents a new theory to explain the variation in political regimes and state infrastructures in pre-French Revolution Europe.

The classsic text for any student seeking to understand the three thinkers who established the basic framework of contemporary sociology.

This work traces the civilizing of manners in Western Europe since the Middle Ages, and shows how this was related to the formation of states and the monopolization of power within them. Originally published as two volumes: The History of Manners and State Formation and Civilization .

Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behaviour are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics and culture.

Steven Lukes' Power: A Radical View is a seminal work still widely used some 30 years after publication. The second edition includes the complete original text alongside two major new essays. One assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault.

Theda Skocpol shows how all three combine to explain the origins and accomplishments of social-revolutionary transformations.