Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the Modern State

Anna Grzymala-Busse

Anna Grzymala-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor in the Department of Political Science, the director of the Europe Center, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford. She previously worked at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Yale University. Her research focuses on religion and politics, authoritarian political parties and their successors, and the historical development of the state. She is the author of four books: Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Successor Parties; Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Development in Post-Communist Europe; Nations Under God: How Churches Use Moral Authority to Influence Politics; and Sacred Foundations: The religious and medieval origins of the European State. She is the recipient of the Carnegie and Guggenheim Fellowships. 

Gerald Easter

Gerald Easter teaches courses in Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on Russia and Eastern Europe. His research interests include the modern state, post-communist transitions, comparative political economy. Current research projects focus on comparative politics of policing and pre-modern politics.   

He is the author of the following books: Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Shaping the Economic Space of Russia (ed., Ashgate, 2000), Capital, Coercion, and Post-Communist States (Cornell University Press, 2012), The Tsarina's Lost Treasure (Pegasus, 2020), and Last Stand of the Raven Clan: When Russia Went to War in America (Pegasus, forthcoming).

He joined the Political Science faculty at Boston College in 2000. He also taught at Georgetown University, Miami University (Ohio), European University in Saint Petersburg, Venice International University, and University of Rome at Tor Vergata. He is currently the Department Chair.