Other Books By Doctor Franz Oppenheimer

OTHER BOOKS BY DOCTOR FRANZ OPPENHEIMER

                         

Die Siedlungsgenossenschaft       1896

Grossgrandeigentum und Soziale Frage       1898

Das Grundgesetz der Marxschen Gesellschaftslehre       1903

Author’s Preface

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

TO THE SECOND AMERICAN EDITION

This little book has made its way. In addition to the present translation into English, there are authorized editions in French, Hungarian and Serbian. I am also informed that there are translations published in Japanese, Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish; but these, of course, are pirated. The book has stood the test of criticism, and has been judged both favorably and unfavorably. It has, unquestionably, revived the discussion on the origin and essence of the State.

I. Theories Op The State

THE STATE

CHAPTER I

THEORIES OF THE STATE

II. The Genesis Of The State

CHAPTER II

THE GENESIS OF THE STATE

III. The Primitive Feudal State

CHAPTER III

THE PRIMITIVE FEUDAL STATE

IV. The Maritime State

CHAPTER IV

THE MARITIME STATE

V. The Development Of The Feudal State

CHAPTER V

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEUDAL STATE

(a) THE GENESIS OF LANDED PROPERTY

WE now return, as stated above, to that point where the primitive feudal State gave rise to the city State as an offshoot, to follow the upward growth of the main branch. As the destiny of the city State was determined by the agglomeration of that form of wealth about which the State swung in its orbit, so the fate of the territorial State is conditioned by that agglomeration of wealth which in turn controls its orbit, the ownership of landed property.

VI. The Development Of The Constitutional State

CHAPTER VI

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL STATE

IF we understand the outcome of the feudal state, in the sense given above, as further organic development either forward or backward conditioned by the power of inner forces, but not as a physical termination, brought about or conditioned by outside forces, then we may say that the outcome of the feudal state is determined essentially by the independent development of social institutions called into being by the economic means.

VII. The Tendency Of The Development Of The State

CHAPTER VII

THE TENDENCY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE

WE have endeavored to discover the development of the state from its most remote past up to present times, following its course like an explorer, from its source down the streams to its effluence in the plains. Broad and powerfully its waves roll by, until it disappears into the mist of the horizon, into unexplored and, for the present-day observer, undiscoverable regions.

Notes

NOTES

“Truly, the summary of universal history would not be begun with more characteristic words than those of Ranke. For in the words applied to Egypt the quintessence of the whole history of mankind is summed up.”-Translator.)

62. Ratzel, 1. c. I, p. 106.