View source for Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe''}}
===by Freiherr Samuel von Pufendorf and Antoine Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière===
__NOTOC__
{{NoBookInfoBox
|shorttitle=Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe
|commontitle=
|vol=
|author=[[:Category:Samuel Pufendorf|Freiherr Samuel von Pufendorf]] and [[:Category:Antoine Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière|Antoine Bruzen de La Martiniere]]
|editor=
|trans=
|publoc=[[:Category:London|London]]
|publisher=Printed for J. and P. Knapton, T. Osborne, C. Hitch, S. Austen, A. Millar [and 4 others in London]
|year=1748
|edition=
|lang=
|set=
|pages=
|desc=
}}
Samuel Pufendorf was a pivotal figure in the early German Enlightenment and, along with Grotius, the great renewer of natural law theory. His version of voluntarist natural law theory had a major influence both on the European continent and in the English-speaking world, particularly Scotland and America. An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe was first translated in 1695 but has been rare in English since the late eighteenth century. <ref> Samuel Pufendorf. An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013. Project MUSE. Web. 18 Sep. 2015. [https://muse.jhu.edu/]</ref>

Pufendorf’s histories exhibit the core notions of his natural law theory by recounting the development and current, reciprocal relations of individual states as collective social agents engaged in securing their own and, thus, their members’ interests, including self-preservation.<ref>Ibid.</ref> Hence, his histories essentially functioned as vehicles for philosophical demonstration or justification. Moreover, by emphasizing empirical details and legitimating (in principle) the de facto politics of interest, these histories appealed strongly to the emerging nation-states of early modern Europe, which sought ratification of their external and internal actions, policies, and pedagogies. He based his account on the respective country’s own historians and took care to describe its position from its own current and historical perspectives. It was a novel and appealing approach to political history, judging from the long and diverse publishing record of the work.<ref>Ibid.</ref>

Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694) was one of the most important figures in early-modern political thought. An exact contemporary of Locke and Spinoza, he transformed the natural law theories of Grotius and Hobbes, developed striking ideas of toleration and of the relationship between church and state, and wrote extensive political histories and analyses of the constitution of the German empire.<ref>Ibid.</ref>

==Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library==

==See also==
*[[Jefferson Inventory]]
*''[[Of the Law of Nature and Nations]]
*''[[De Officio Hominis & Civis Juxta Legem Naturalem|S. Pufendorfii, De Officio Hominis & Civis Juxta Legem Naturalem]]''
*[[Wythe's Library]]

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
Read this book in [https://books.google.com/books?id=qZ5AnQEACAAJ&dq=Introduction+to+the+History+of+the+Principal+Kingdoms Google Books]

[[Category:Antoine Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière]]
[[Category:European History]]
[[Category:Jefferson's Books]]
[[Category:Samuel Pufendorf]]
[[Category:Titles in Wythe's Library]]

[[Category:London]]