This is a work vast in scale soaring in its scholarly ambition and magnificent . . . in its achievement. The author's command of the primary sources is staggering in breadth and depth deftly orchestrated and rich with insight. . . . Deploying an avalanche of evidence. . . Rahe shows how alien the modern project in all its diverse versions was to the classics as well as the Bible.--Thomas L. Pangle <i>Political Theory</i>