Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State

Description

The surprising similarities in the rise and fall of the Sunni Islamic and Roman Catholic empires in the face of the modern state Coping with Defeat presents a historical panorama of the Islamic and Catholic political-religious empires and exposes striking parallels in their relationship with the modern state. Drawing on interviews, site visits,

Jonathan Laurence is professor of political science and director of the Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy at Boston College. He is the author of The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims (Princeton) and his work has appeared in such venues as the New York Times and The Economist. Twitter @jonathanlauren6

"Winner of the Hubert Morken Best Book in Religion and Politics Award, American Political Science Association" "This refreshing, provocative work explores how the two largest religious planets in the political solar system adjusted to the birth of an entirely new celestial body-the state."---Alan Mikhail, Wall Street Journal "A closely argued, contrarian piece of scholarship . . . by an eminent American observer of Islam." * The Economist * "This is an ambitious but brilliant work underpinned by disciplined use of archival data."---Steven Simon, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy "a provocative work, one that puts a new spin on an old question and illustrates it with original research .... Laurence has created an invaluable reference for scholars of both traditions as well as any public interested in the operations and aims of religious institutions in the age of national sovereignty."---Charles Haberl, The Berlin Journal "Extensive, highly learned, meticulously researched."---Jared Rubin, International Journal of Middle East Studies "Scholarship of the first water."---Joseph Prud'homme, The Journal of Church and State