The political nature of absolutism has long been the subject of debate among historians. Developing ideas put forward in a previous work (“Transitions from Antiquity to Feudalism”), the outstanding Anglo-American historian Perry Anderson examines the circumstances of the emergence of absolutist monarchies from the crisis of feudalism. Starting from the thesis that absolutist monarchies represented an attempt to recreate the feudal state to protect the interests of the ruling class, the author traces the paths of various countries - Spain, France, England, Italy, Sweden, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Russia, the Islamic world and Japan - to the birth of nation states. The book shows the difference between Western absolutism and Eastern absolutism and explains the reasons for this difference. Translation: Ivan Kurilla