Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789 Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789

Covering European history from the invention of the printing press to the French Revolution, the third edition of this best-selling textbook is thoroughly updated with new scholarship and an emphasis on environmental history, travel and migration, race and cultural blending, and the circulation of goods and knowledge. Summaries, timelines, maps, illustrations, and discussion questions illuminate the narrative and support the student. Enhanced online content and sections on sources and methodology give students the tools they need to study early modern European history. Leading historian Merry Wiesner-Hanks skillfully balances breadth and depth of coverage to create a strong narrative, paying particular attention to the global context of European developments. She integrates discussion of gender, class, regional, and ethnic differences across the entirety of Europe and its overseas colonies as well as the economic, political, religious, and cultural history of the period. "The title of this book, and perhaps also of the course for which you are reading it, is Early Modern Europe. The dates in the title inform you about the chronological span covered (1450-1789), but they do not explain the designation "early modern." That term was developed by historians seeking to refine an intellectual model first devised during this very period, when scholars divided European history into three parts: ancient (to the end of the Roman Empire in the west in the fifth century), medieval (from the fifth century to the fifteenth), and modern (from the fifteenth century to their own time). In this model, the break between the Middle Ages and the modern era was marked by the first voyage of Columbus (1492) and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation (1517), though some scholars, especially those who focused on Italy, set the break somewhat earlier with the Italian Renaissance. This three-part periodization became extremely influential, and as the modern era grew longer and longer, historians began to divide it into "early modern" - from the Renaissance or Columbus to the French Revolution in 1789 - and what we might call "truly modern" - from the French Revolution to whenever they happened to be writing" "This book covers European history from the invention of the printing press to the French Revolution. The third edition of this best-selling textbook is thoroughly updated with new scholarship and an emphasis on environmental history, travel and migration, race and cultural blending, and the circulation of goods and knowledge. Summaries, timelines, maps, illustrations and discussion questions illuminate the narrative and support the student. Enhanced online content and sections on sources and methodology give students the tools they need to study early modern European history. Leading historian Merry Wiesner-Hanks skillfully balances breadth and depth of coverage to create a strong narrative, paying particular attention to the global context of European developments. She integrates discussion of gender, class, regional and ethnic differences across the entirety of Europe and its overseas colonies as well as the economic, political, religious and cultural history of the period"-- Provided by publisher The third edition of this best-selling textbook is thoroughly updated, with an emphasis on the global and environmental context of European developments in the early modern period. Sections on sources and methodology give students the tools needed to study the period. This acclaimed textbook offers unmatched breadth and depth of coverage.