The History of Government from the Earliest Times: Volume I: Ancient Monarchies and Empires

No review can fully capture the breadth and accessibility of S. E. Finer's posthumous magnum opus ... its clarity and readability must be emphasized ... Finer constantly reminds us of exceptions that explain the richness and diversity of polities. * John R. Cramsie, History *
This is political science on the grandest scale: three volumes that provide a history of successive forms of government throughout the world from the earliest times to the present day ... Finer presents material on political systems that most political scientists will be completely unfamiliar with, and gives fresh insights into systems that they might have thought they knew ... What makes it a great book, and one that deserves to be read by all students of government, is Finer's remarkable ability to classify and compare across the entire universe of known systems of government. It is not simply the scholarship and erudition that is breathtaking, but also the confident, clear and imaginative use of comparative tools to describe the significance of the systems of government. * Edward Page, Public Policy *
Finer's magisterial History of Government is, indeed, 'the mix of scholastic erudition with street-level realism' that the authors of the preface claim it is for. His three volumes engagingly and convincingly blend usually precise scholarship; imaginative flare and insight; a genius for comparison, contrast, and analogy; great forthrightness; and essential knowledge for the formation of and commentary upon current public policy. Historians, social scientists broadly conceived, statesmen, and journalists will be indebted to him for a long time for this ambitious work. His range of dramatic narrative, incisive analysis and interpretation, instructive comparisons, studied repetitions, and well-chosen emphases arrested at least this reader's attention and compelled his fascinated interest. Finer weaves everything together into a rich texture and overarching thesis so that...his work will stimulate scholars for generations to come. * Donald A. Bailey *