这是哈佛大学教授哈罗德·J·伯尔曼集40年心血写成的一部力作，着重研究“西方法律传统”的形成因素。该书分为两部，第一部论教皇革命与教会法，第二部论西方世俗法律制度的形成，包括封建法、庄园法、商法、城市法和皇家法。作者在一幅巨大画布上描绘了西方法律传统形成与演变的全景图。细节刻画精细，整体气象恢宏，融制度与观念于一体，对西方法律传统的特质、它与社会之间的关系以及它所面临的严峻危机均有精辟的论述，并对马克思主义、马克斯·韦伯学说进行了独到的评论。该书不仅是法学界人士的必读书，对于哲学、历史学、社会学、宗教学、文化学等领域的读者也会大有裨益。

In the sister two volumes entitled Unhappy Valley 1 and Unhappy Valley 2, the authors investigate major themes including the conquest origins and subsequent development of the colonial state, the contradictory social forces that articulated African societies to European capitalism, and the creation of new political communities and changing meanings of ethnicity in Africa, in the context of social differentiation and class formation. There is substantial new work on the problems of Mau Mau and of wealth, poverty and civic virtue in Kikuyu political thought. The authors make a fresh contribution to a deeper historical understanding of contemporary Kenyan society and, in particular, of the British and Kikuyu origins of Mau Mau and the emergency of the 1950s. They also highlight some of the shortcomings of ideas about development, explore the limitations of narrowly structuralist Marxist theory of the state, and reflect on the role of history in the future of Africa.