Otto von Gierke Book order

Reprint complete in one volume that contains "an English translation of five sections of the fourth volume of Otto von Gierke's magisterial treatise on the history of the German law of associations. When this edition was published, all competent students of the history of jurisprudence and political thought at once recognized that Professor Barker had made a very important contribution to the literature of these fields, none the less so because of the elaborate and learned Introduction which he himself had contributed." C.J. Friedrich, Harv. L. Rev. 49:677-680 cited in Marke, Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University 938. Gierke [1841-1921], an important German jurist, is widely considered to be a founder of modern German constitutional law.

Gierke, Otto. Political Theories of the Middle Ages. Translated with an introduction by Frederick William Maitland. At the University Press, 1913. lxxx, 197 pp. Reprinted 2002 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2001041398. Hardcover. New. Gierke's masterful analysis of the medieval doctrine of sovereignty or government is enhanced by Maitland's deft introductory essay on the nature of the state entity in Germany and England. That Maitland held Gierke and this work in high esteem is apparent. He proclaims in the "The outlines are large, the strokes are firm, and medieval appears as an introduction to modern thought." Introduction p. [vii]. Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 431, 938.

This is the first English translation of the first work of Otto von Gierke, arguably the greatest historian of ideas of the nineteenth century. Community in Historical Perspective includes much of the first volume of Das Deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht, originally published in 1868, and the texts translated here have become essential reading for anyone interested not only in the history of ideas and alternatives to conventional socialism and liberalism, but also, as recent experience has shown, contemporary European affairs. Von Gierke's represented an unparalleled attempt to justify a political programme of structural pluralism, and to interpret the entire course of European history from the Dark Ages onwards as a progressive interaction between 'fellowship' (or 'comradeship') and 'lordship' (or 'sovereignty'). This interaction was to generate a polity of autonomous associations within a constitutional state based upon consent and federal unity, and von Gierke here laid the basis for a distinctively Germanic programme of federalism and quasi-pluralism, with a strongly nationalist emphasis upon the unique capacity of Germans, despite long periods of absolute rule, for corporate self-management.