This is an impressive work for the ages, no doubt about that. The author presents a meticulous sociological analysis of power, where ancient agrarian civilizations (with a particular focus on Mesopotamia) form the first focal point. The second part of the book deals with European developments (with a particular focus on England) from the middle ages to about 1760. This is not a universal history of power, but the delimitations are well justified and clearly sufficient for the author's theoretical arguments.

The author argues that there are four kinds of organized power networks: economic, military, ideological and political. As far as agrarian civilizations were concerned I thought this division worked well and the first half of the book was very interesting. However, I must admit that I failed to keep up in the second half. The author goes into a lot more detail in discussing Europe and England, which makes his analysis quite hard to read and understand. It's not made any easier by his style, which often tends to move deeper and deeper into the subject without pausing for any intermediate summaries. Even the summary at the end of the book seemed diffuse to me.

For the above reasons this seems like a book for professionals in historical sociology (for generations to come). To me it was a bit too difficult. If you want to actually benefit from reading this work, you should study thoroughly in European political, economic and religious history (about 1000-1800) before tackling it. In other words, it's a challenge but certainly worth the effort if you can put some work into it.

Very difficult read, but interesting perspectives on how power develops. ( )