Europe in a Wider World, 1350-1650 / Edition 1

by Robin W. Winks, Lee Palmer Wandel

Overview

Between roughly 1350 and 1650, Europe underwent seismic changes in economics, politics, culture, and religion. Feudal monarchies were reconceived as abstract states. The new technology of the printing press transformed how information was disseminated, bringing texts to different social groups. Painters perfected the artifice of perspective for an increasingly commercial patronage, even as they themselves cultivated the value of their own "genius" through increasingly distinctive styles and visions. Reformers called into question 1500 years of tradition, splitting the One True Church into multiple churches. In the midst of all these changes, Europeans reached farther and farther out into a world they did not yet dominate, even as they lived uneasily under the shadow of an expansionist Islamic Mediterranean. Indeed, that wider world was inseparable from those seismic changes in the political and cultural landscape of Europe.
Europe in a Wider World, 1350-1650 offers a concise discussion of these events and the impact they had upon an evolving European society. It provides a clear outline of political events and a lively exploration of developments in the social and cultural landscape. Along with traditional themes, such as Protestantism, the book examines the changing roles of European women and the effects of environmental fluctuation on the history of the continent. By looking at these years as a whole, the authors attempt to restore interconnections among events that are often lost when the time period is viewed through the double categories of "The Renaissance" and "The Reformation." Illustrated with nine detailed maps and twenty-four images, and offering chapter summaries and a chronology to aid students, this text is ideal for undergraduate courses in early modern European history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195154481
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/27/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	9.18(w) x 6.20(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Yale University

University of Wisconsin

Table of Contents

1. The Late Middle Ages in Eastern EuropeThe CrusadesThe Fall of Byzantium, 1081-1453The Ottoman Empire, 1453-1699Russia from the Thirteenth to the End of the Seventeenth CenturiesSummary2. The Rise of the NationA World Turned Upside DownThe Emerging National MonarchiesParticularism in Germany and ItalySummary3. The RenaissanceA Money EconomyPrinting, Thought, and LiteratureScience and ReligionThe Fine ArtsThe Art of Daily LivingSummary4. Exploration and ExpansionExploration and ExpansionEast by Sea to the IndiesWest by Sea to the IndiesThe North Atlantic PowersRussiaThe Impact of ExpansionSummary5. The Age of ReformationProtestant Founders: Martin Luther, 1483-1546Protestant Founders: Zwingli, Calvin, and OthersProtestant Beliefs and PracticesThe Catholic ReformationProtestantism and the Idea of ProgressSummary6. The Great Powers in ConflictA Long DuréeA Complexity of WarsThe Catholic Monarchies: Spain and FranceFrance: Toward Absolutism, 1547-1588The Protestant States: Tudor England and the Dutch RepublicThe Holy Roman Empire and the Thirty Years' WarScience and ReligionSummary