In an extended foreword, specially prepared for this new impression, J.C. Holt asserts categorically "that Domesday Book and Beyond remains the greatest single book on English medieval history." Its lucidity, subtlety, compass, and (remarkably) statistical facility stand quite unsurpassed and, as Professor Holt demonstrates, many of the arguments that have dominated English medieval scholarship during the ensuing ninety years stem directly from Maitland's own hypotheses and conclusions.

Representing perhaps the most celebrated English historian since Gibbon, this collection of a series of F.W. Maitland's (1850-1906) later essays is designed to bring his thought to the attention of political theorists and political scientists, as well as historians. The essays are about the historical origins of the state, and many of their themes--the limits of state power, the interrelationship between states and corporations--are of continuing relevance today.