Harold Berman's masterwork narrates the interaction of evolution and revolution in the development of Western law. This new volume explores two successive transformations of the Western legal tradition under the impact of the sixteenth-century German Reformation and the seventeenth-century English Revolution, with particular emphasis on Lutheran and Calvinist influences. Berman examines the far-reaching consequences of these apocalyptic political and social upheavals on the systems of legal philosophy, legal science, criminal law, civil and economic law, and social law in Germany and England and throughout Europe as a whole.

Berman challenges both conventional approaches to legal history, which have neglected the religious foundations of Western legal systems, and standard social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the communitarian dimensions of early modern economic law, including corporation law and social welfare.

Clearly written and cogently argued, this long-awaited, magisterial work is a major contribution to an understanding of the relationship of law to Western belief systems.

伯尔曼是当代美国最具世界影响力的法学家之一，世界知名的比较法学家、国际法学家、法史学家、社会主义法专家，以及法与宗教关系领域最著名的先驱人物。他对中国当代法学界也产生过重大影响，是中国法学界比较熟悉的外国法学家。

1918年，伯尔曼出生于美国康涅狄格州的哈特佛市（Hartford）。1947年，29岁的伯尔曼在耶鲁大学获得法学博士学位，转年即进入哈佛大学法学院任教。到1985年，他去了爱莫蕾法学院，直至去世。

在将近60年的教学研究生涯中，伯尔曼教授获得了许多名副其实的荣誉。他著作等身，共出版了25本专著，发表过400多篇学术论文。为他赢得最高学术声誉的是《法律和革命：西方法律传统的形成》（1983），他的这部代表作被译成了德、法、中、俄、波兰、西班牙、意大利和立陶宛语，而他的其他作品被译为他国语言的总和达到20种。他的重要著作还有《信念与秩序：法律和宗教的谐调》《法律与第二次革命：新教改革对西方法律传统的冲击》等。