The Holy Roman Empire emerged in the Middle Ages as a loosely integrated union of German states
and city-states under the supreme rule of an emperor and would endure until its dissolution in
1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides a concise history of the
empire presenting an interpretation of its unique political culture and remarkably durable
institutions. In a narrative spanning three turbulent centuries Stollberg-Rilinger shows how
it was a political body unlike any other bound together by personal loyalty and reciprocity
tradition and shared purpose and constantly reenacted by solemn rituals.
