EUROPE, HISTORY OF

history of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times to the present. Europe is a more ambiguous term than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is doubtful, as is the physical extent of the area it designates. Its western frontiers seem clearly defined by its coastline, yet the position of the British Isles remains equivocal. To outsiders, they seem clearly part of Europe. To many British and some Irish people, however, Europe means essentially continental Europe. To the south, Europe ends on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, to the Roman Empire, this was mare nostrum (our sea), an inland sea rather than a frontier. Even now, some question whether Malta or Cyprus is a European island. The greatest uncertainty lies to the east, where natural frontiers are notoriously elusive. If the Ural Mountains mark the eastern boundary of Europe, where does it lie to the south of them? Can Astrakhan, for instance, be regarded as European? Can even the Crimea or the Ukraine? The questions have more than merely geographic significance. These questions have acquired new importance as Europe has come to be more than a geographic expression. After World War II, much was heard of the European idea. Essentially, this meant the idea of European unity, at first confined to western Europe but by the beginning of the 1990s seeming able at length to embrace central and eastern Europe as well. Unity in Europe is an ancient ideal. In a sense it was implicitly prefigured by the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, it was imperfectly embodied first by Charlemagne's empire and then by the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic church. Later, a number of political theorists proposed plans for European union, and both Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler tried to unite Europe by conquest. It was not until after World War II, however, that European statesmen began to seek ways of uniting Europe peacefully on a basis of equality instead of domination by one or more great powers. Their motive was fourfold: to prevent further wars in Europe, in particular by reconciling France and Germany and helping to deter aggression by others; to eschew the protectionism and beggar-my-neighbour policies that had been practiced between the wars; to match the political and economic influence of the world's new superpowers, but on a civilian basis; and to begin to civilize international relations by introducing common rules and institutions that would identify and promote the shared interests of Europe rather than the national interests of its constituent states. Underlying this policy is the conviction that Europeans have more in common than divides them, especially in the modern world. By comparison with other continents, western Europe is small and immensely varied, divided by rivers and mountains and cut into by inlets and creeks. It is also densely populateda mosaic of different peoples with a multiplicity of languages. Very broadly and inadequately, its peoples can be sorted into Nordic, Alpine or Celtic, and Mediterranean types, and the bulk of their languages classified as either Romance or Germanic. In this sense, what Europeans chiefly share is their diversity; and it may be this that has made them so energetic and combative. Although uniquely favoured by fertile soils and temperate climates, they have long proved themselves warlike. Successive waves of invasion, mainly from the east, were followed by centuries of rivalry and conflict, both within Europe and overseas. Many of Europe's fields have been battlefields, and many of Europe's cities, it has been said, were built on bones. Yet Europeans have also been in the forefront of intellectual, social, and economic endeavour. As navigators, explorers, and colonists, for a long time they dominated much of the rest of the world and left on it the impress of their values, their technology, their politics, and even their dress. They also exported both nationalism and weaponry. Then, in the 20th century, Europe came close to destroying itself. World War I cost more than 8 million European lives, World War II more than 18 million in battle, bombing, and systematic Nazi genocideto say nothing of the 30 million who perished elsewhere. As well as the dead, the wars left lasting wounds, psychological and physical alike. But, whereas World War I exacerbated nationalism and ideological extremism in Europe, World War II had almost the opposite effect. The burned child fears fire; and Europe had been badly burned. Within five years of the war's end, the French foreign minister Robert Schuman, prompted by Jean Monnet, proposed to Germany the first practical move toward European unity, and the West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed. Others involved in that first step included the statesmen Alcide De Gasperi and Paul-Henri Spaak. All except Monnet were men from Europe's linguistic and political frontiersSchuman from Lorraine, Adenauer from the Rhineland, De Gasperi from northern Italy, Spaak from bilingual Belgium. Europe's diversity thus helped foster its impulse to unite. Richard J. Mayne This article treats the history of European society and culture. For a discussion of the physical and human geography of the continent, see Europe. For the histories of individual countries, see specific articles by name. Articles treating specific topics in European history include Byzantine Empire; Steppe, the; World War I; and World War II. For the lives of prominent European figures, see specific biographies by namee.g., Charlemagne, Erasmus, and Bismarck. Related topics are discussed in such articles as those on religion (e.g., Celtic religion; Greek religion; Germanic religion; Christianity; and Judaism), literature (e.g., English literature, Scandinavian literature, and Russian literature), and the fine arts (e.g., painting, history of; and music, history of). Additional reading Prehistory A comprehensive introduction to European prehistory is offered in Timothy Champion et al., Prehistoric Europe (1984). Specific periods are covered in Clive Gamble, The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe (1986); Clive Bonsall (ed.), The Mesolithic in Europe (1989); and Alasdair Whittle, Neolithic Europe: A Survey (1985). Among studies of economy and subsistence, Robin Dennell, European Economic Prehistory: A New Approach (1983), deals particularly with hunter-gatherers; Marek Zvelebil (ed.), Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Eurasia and Their Transition to Farming (1986), includes regional studies of postglacial hunter-gatherers and the beginnings of agriculture; and Graeme Barker, Prehistoric Farming in Europe (1985), is a detailed study of early agriculture. John M. Coles and Andrew J. Lawson (eds.), European Wetlands in Prehistory (1987), contains information on the unusually well-preserved archaeological finds. N.K. Sandars, Prehistoric Art in Europe, 2nd ed. (1985), is a well-illustrated introductory survey; see also Peter J. Ucko and Andre Rosenfeld, Palaeolithic Cave Art (1967); and Andr Leroi-Gourhan, The Dawn of European Art: An Introduction to Palaeolithic Cave Painting (1982; originally published in Italian, 1981). For the Indo-European question, the best account of the theory of invasions is J.P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth (1989). Colin Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins (1987), considers the issues and argues for the spread of the language with early agriculture. Timothy C. Champion The Metal Ages General surveys include Patricia Phillips, The Prehistory of Europe (1980); Herbert Schutz, The Prehistory of Germanic Europe (1983); and A.F. Harding (ed.), Climatic Change in Later Prehistory (1982). Jacques Briard, The Bronze Age in Barbarian Europe: From the Megaliths to the Celts (1979; originally published in French, 1976), describes the main discoveries; J.M. Coles and A.F. Harding, The Bronze Age in Europe: An Introduction to the Prehistory of Europe, c. 2000700 BC (1979), offers a comprehensive account for different parts of Europe and an extensive bibliography; and Marie Louise Stig Srensen and Roger Thomas (eds.), The Bronze AgeIron Age Transition in Europe: Aspects of Continuity and Change in European Societies, c. 1200 to 500 B.C., 2 vol. (1989), is a collection of scholarly articles.John Collis, The European Iron Age (1984), focuses on the links between the Mediterranean and the Iron Age culture of central Europe, and his Oppida: Earliest Towns North of the Alps (1984), discusses early urban settlements. Barry Cunliffe, Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians: Spheres of Interaction (1988), explores the influence of classical civilization and commerce on the cultures of central and western Europe. Harold Haefner (ed.), Frhes Eisen in Europa (1981), is a collection of papers on the origin of iron technology in Europe. A.M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece: An Archaeological Survey of the Eleventh to the Eighth Centuries BC (1971), examines the changes characterizing early Iron Age Greece.Social, economic, and cultural developments are studied in Richard Bradley, The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain: Themes and Variations in the Archaeology of Power (1984); Robert Chapman, Emerging Complexity: The Later Prehistory of South-East Spain, Iberia, and the West Mediterranean (1990), an analysis of the cultural sequence focusing on social complexity; Peter S. Wells, Farms, Villages, and Cities: Commerce and Urban Origins in Late Prehistoric Europe (1984), a survey of the settlement structure of the Iron Age; J.V.S. Megaw, Art of the European Iron Age: A Study of the Elusive Image (1970), an illustrated interpretive survey of motifs and imagery; and Peter S. Wells, Culture Contact and Culture Change: Early Iron Age Central Europe and the Mediterranean World (1980), analyzing the cultural relationship. Marie-Louise Stig Srensen Greeks, Romans, and barbarians Appropriate volumes of the multivolume series Cambridge Ancient History (1923 ) survey the development and interaction of the civilizations. Emily Vermeule, Greece in the Bronze Age (1964, reprinted 1972), is a standard work on Aegean civilization. Other detailed treatments include Chester G. Starr, The Origins of Greek Civilization, 1100650 B.C. (1961); N.G.L. Hammond, A History of Greece to 322 B.C., 3rd ed. (1986); J.B. Bury and Russell Meiggs, A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great, 4th ed. (1975); and Oswyn Murray, Early Greece (1980). John Boardman, The Greek Overseas: Their Early Colonies and Trade, new ed. (1980), provides an overview of commercial expansion; and Erich S. Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome, 2 vol. (1984), is a history of the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic states.H.H. Scullard, A History of the Roman World: 753146 BC, 4th ed. (1980), is a standard comprehensive survey. Other relevant histories are Jacques Heurgon, The Rise of Rome to 264 B.C. (1973; originally published in French, 1969); Kurt A. Raaflaub (ed.), Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders (1986), focusing on the social life, customs, and class structure of republican Rome; William V. Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 32770 B.C. (1979, reprinted 1985), on Roman expansion; Joseph Vogt, The Decline of Rome: The Metamorphosis of Ancient Civilization (1967; originally published in German, 1965); and A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284602: A Social Economic and Administrative Survey, 2 vol. (1964, reprinted 1986). Michael Grant and Rachel Kitzinger (eds.), Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome, 3 vol. (1988), is a comprehensive collection of essays on cultural, economic, and social life in the classical world.Brief illustrated surveys of 600 years of postclassical history are presented in Gerald Simons, Barbarian Europe (1968); and Philip Dixon, Barbarian Europe (1976). Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973), offers a scholarly examination of the development of early Europe. The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica The Middle Ages A broad picture of the transition from the classical world to the Middle Ages is presented in Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150750 (1971, reissued 1989); Tim Cornell and John Matthews, Atlas of the Roman World (1982); J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West 4001000, 3rd rev. ed. (1967, reprinted 1988); James Campbell, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald, The Anglo-Saxons (1982); Michael Cook, Muhammad (1983); and Richard Hodges and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne, & the Origins of Europe: Archaeology and the Pirenne Thesis (1983). The Christianization of Europe is explored in Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (1987); and Jeffrey Richards, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476752 (1979). Historical dynamics across several centuries are analyzed in such national surveys as Roger Collins, Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 4001000 (1983); Edward James, The Origins of France: From Clovis to Capetians, 5001000 (1982); and Chris Wickham, Early Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 4001000 (1981). For relevant topical studies, see P.H. Sawyer and I.N. Wood, Early Medieval Kingship (1977); Pierre Rich, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, Sixth Through Eighth Centuries (1976; originally published in French, 1973); and Georges Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (1974; originally published in French, 1973).The fullest account in English of medieval Europe is found in the appropriate volumes of the multivolume series Cambridge Medieval History (1911 ), a new edition of which is an on-going publication. Accessible later introductions include, in a series, Christopher Brooke, Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 9621154, 2nd ed. (1987); John H. Mundy, Europe in the High Middle Ages, 11501309 (1973); Denys Hay, Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 2nd ed. (1989); and Daniel Waley, Later Medieval Europe: From Saint Louis to Luther, 2nd ed. (1985). H.g. Koenigsberger, Medieval Europe, 4001500 (1987), is a concise comprehensive survey. Jacques Le Goff, Time, Work, & Culture in the Middle Ages (1980; originally published in French, 1977), provides an introduction to social history. Development of agrarian society and the economy are examined in Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West (1968, reprinted 1990; originally published in French, 1962); and Robert H. Bautier, The Economic Development of Medieval Europe, trans. from French (1971). Franois L. Ganshof, Feudalism, 2nd ed. (1961; originally published in French, 1947), analyzes the structure of feudal society; see also Georges Duby, The Chivalrous Society, trans. from French (1977), on social classes. Fritz Kern, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages (1939, reprinted 1985; originally published in German, 1914), remains the most accessible introduction to the subject of monarchy, law, and constitutional history.The most detailed accounts of the medieval church are the appropriate volumes of the multivolume Handbook of Church History, ed. by Hubert Jedin and John Dolan, 10 vol. (19651981; originally published in German, 3rd German ed., 19621979). Further treatments are offered in Bernard Hamilton, Religion in the Medieval West (1986); R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (1970, reprinted 1985); Francis Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (1979, reprinted 1985); J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983); and Colin Morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (1989). Intellectual life is explored in Michael Haren, Medieval Thought: The Western Intellectual Tradition from Antiquity to the Thirteenth Century (1985); and J.H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350c. 1450 (1988). Urban cultures are the subject of Henri Pirenne, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade, trans. from French (1925, reissued 1956), retaining much of its historical value; Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics, 3rd ed. (1988); and Jacques Heers, Parties and Political Life in the Medieval West, trans. from French (1977), offering further detail. J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought, and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries (1924, reprinted 1985; originally published in Dutch, 1919), is a brilliant and widely influential interpretation of decline and decadence, but it provides a controversial point of view of the rich and varied culture of the Northern countries. Judith Eleanor Herrin Martin Brett The Renaissance Historiographical problems Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1890; originally published in German, 1860), is a classic work, elegant and stimulating, available in many later editions, but its thesis, that 14th-century Italians broke sharply with their medieval past to create modern states and a highly individualistic secular society and culture, has been heavily modified by most modern specialists. Wallace K. Ferguson, The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Interpretation (1948, reprinted 1981), offers an excellent introduction, but recent scholarship has expanded the range and depth of knowledge and dissolved such interpretive consensus as still existed when Ferguson wrote. E.F. Jacob (ed.), Italian Renaissance Studies (1960); Tinsley Helton (ed.), The Renaissance: A Reconsideration of the Theories and Interpretations of the Age (1961, reprinted 1980); and Denys Hay, The Italian Renaissance in Its Historical Background, 2nd ed. (1977), characterize the interpretations of the 1960s. At present most Renaissance historians do not make the sweeping characterizations of the spirit of an age that once came so easily. An excellent historiographical and bibliographical guide to works about Europe outside Italy is Steven Ozment (ed.), Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research (1982), not really limited to the Reformation. The Italian Renaissance Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy (1979, reissued 1988), provides an informative survey. Florentine history is authoritatively surveyed in Gene Brucker, Renaissance Florence (1969, reissued 1983). Eric Cochrane, Florence in the Forgotten Centuries, 15271800: A History of Florence and the Florentines in the Age of the Grand Dukes (1973), ventures beyond the fall of the Florentine republic. Venetian history is ably treated in D.S. Chambers, The Imperial Age of Venice, 13801580 (1970); William H. McNeill, Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081-1797 (1974, reprinted 1986); and Robert Finlay, Politics in Renaissance Venice (1980). Social and cultural conditions and religious life are approached in Brian Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: The Social Institutions of a Catholic State, to 1620 (1971); Richard C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (1980); David Herlihy and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Tuscans and Their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427 (1985; originally published in French, 1978); Ronald F.E. Weissman, Ritual Brotherhood in Renaissance Florence (1982); Edward Muir, Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice (1981); and Donald E. Queller, The Venetian Patriciate: Reality Versus Myth (1986). Joan Kelly, Did Women Have a Renaissance? in her Women, History, & Theory (1984), challenged Burckhardt's thesis that women achieved equality with men in Renaissance Italy. See also Ian Maclean, The Renaissance Notion of Woman: A Study in the Fortunes of Scholasticism and Medical Science in European Intellectual Life (1980); Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy, trans. from French (1985); and Margaret W. Ferguson, Maureen Quilligan, and Nancy J. Vickers (eds.), Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe (1986). Samuel Kline Cohn, Jr., The Laboring Classes in Renaissance Florence (1980), is a controversial ground-breaking study.A good starting point for the study of Renaissance intellectual history is Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic, and Humanistic Strains, rev. ed. (1961), and Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (1965, reissued 1980). Eugenio Garin, Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance, trans. from Italian (1965, reprinted 1975); and Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny, rev. ed. (1966), treat humanism as a civic ethos as well as a scholarly and educational movement; while Charles Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist Thought, 2 vol. (1970), disproves the notion of humanism as primarily secular. Ernest H. Wilkins, Life of Petrarch (1961), provides information on the acknowledged founder of Renaissance humanism. Ronald G. Witt, Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works, and Thought of Coluccio Salutati (1983), is an excellent study of a figure second only to Petrarch in importance. George Holmes, Florence, Rome, and the Origins of the Renaissance (1986), revives an old thesis attributing the origins of the Renaissance to the age of Dante. Studies of humanist culture outside Florence include J.K. Hyde, Padua in the Age of Dante (1966); John F. D'Amico, Renaissance Humanism in Papal Rome: Humanists and Churchmen on the Eve of the Reformation (1983); Charles L. Stinger, The Renaissance in Rome (1985); Jerry H. Bentley, Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples (1987); and Margaret L. King, Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (1986). A lively revisionist view that challenges basic assumptions about the history of Renaissance humanism is presented in Anthony Grafton and Lisa Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Europe (1986). On the current state of studies on humanism, see Albert Rabil, Jr. (ed.), Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, 3 vol. (1988).The classic account of the development of diplomacy is Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (1955, reprinted 1988); see also Joycelyne G. Russell, Peacemaking in the Renaissance (1986). On warfare, see Michael Mallett, Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy (1974). Felix Gilbert, Machiavelli and Guicciardini: Politics and History in Sixteenth-Century Florence (1965, reprinted 1984), provides the political and cultural context of the thought of two leading Renaissance political scholars. J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (1975), traces the Renaissance heritage to modern times. Sebastian de Grazia, Machiavelli in Hell (1989), is a fresh, lively intellectual biography of the great Florentine. Science and technology Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early Modern Europe, 2 vol. (1979), and The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe (1983), make a strong case for the revolutionary impact of Renaissance print technology upon culture. The concept of a scientific revolution is upheld in such standard works as Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science: 13001800, rev. ed. (1957, reprinted 1982); I. Bernard Cohen, From Leonardo to Lavoisier, 14501800 (1980); and A. Rupert Hall, The Revolution in Science, 15001750, 3rd ed. (1983); while the continuities with medieval science are stressed in A.C. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science, 2nd rev. ed. (1959, reissued 1967). Feminist theorists have made some influential contributions to revisionist perspectives deploring the triumphalism with which scientific advance has been treated: see, for example, Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflections on Gender and Science (1985). The Renaissance outside Italy New areas of investigation in social history, including the history of the lower classes, women, the family, and popular religion, are exemplified in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The Peasants of Languedoc (1974; originally published in French, 1966); Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost: Further Explored, 3rd. ed. (1984); Natalie Zemon Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (1975, reissued 1987); Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (1978, reprinted 1988); Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 13001500 (1976); Steven Ozment, When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe (1983); Joseph Klaits, Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts (1985); and Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (1987).In religious history there has been a tendency to reconstruct the bridges between the late medieval and Reformation piety and thought. One of the most influential examples of this effort is Heiko Augustinus Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (1963, reissued 1983), and Heiko Augustinus Oberman (ed.), Forerunners of the Reformation: The Shape of Late Medieval Thought (1966, reissued 1981). Other important studies include Steven E. Ozment (ed.), The Reformation in Medieval Perspective (1971); and Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (1977). Another, not necessarily contradictory, tendency has been that of seeing the history of late medieval and Renaissance religion in its own terms, rather than as the prelude to the Reformation: see Charles Trinkaus and Heiko Augustinus Oberman (eds.), The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion (1974); and Richard Kieckhefer, Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and Their Religious Milieu (1984). An original and valuable, if sometimes debatable, overview is John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 14001700 (1985). Donald Weinstein The emergence of modern Europe The economic backgound is discussed in a variety of studies. Carlo M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 10001700, 2nd ed. (1980; originally published in Italian, 1974), offers a treatment of the economy focusing not so much on history as on social structures. Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System, 3 vol. (197489), covers the period from the 16th to the mid-19th century, emphasizing spatial division of the early capitalistic world among core areas, semiperipheries, and peripheries. Another broad, rich, and learned reconstruction of the world of early capitalism is offered in Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism, 15th18th Century, 3 vol. (198284; originally published in French, 1979).Comprehensive works include Rondo Cameron, A Concise Economic History of the World: From Paleolithic Times to the Present (1989); Harry A. Miskimin, The Economy of Later Renaissance Europe, 14601600 (1977), stressing concepts of law as a critical factor in economic development; E.E. Rich and C.H. Wilson (eds.), The Economy of Expanding Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1967); Jan De Vries, Economy of Europe in an Age of Crisis, 16001750 (1976), exploring the 17th-century unraveling of the 16th-century world, and European Urbanization, 15001800 (1984), a broader survey; Witold Kula, An Economic Theory of the Feudal System: Towards a Model of the Polish Economy, 15001800, new ed. (1976, reissued 1987; originally published in Polish, 1962), an analysis of a particular 16th-century economy; and Piero Camporesi, Bread of Dreams: Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe (1989; originally published in Italian, 1980), an exploration of malnutrition with an impressive picture of some unpalatable food and the symbolism of its consumption.For demographics, see Josiah Cox Russell, The Control of Late Ancient and Medieval Population (1985), a historical study of European communities; and E.A. Wrigley and R.S. Schofield, The Population History of England, 15411871: A Reconstruction (1981), utilizing new techniques of reconstruction and backward projection of census data.Studies of protoindustrialization include Peter Kriedte et al., Industrialization Before Industrialization: Rural Industry in the Genesis of Capitalism (1981; originally published in German, 1977), in a German context; John U. Nef, Industry and Government in France and England, 15401640 (1940, reprinted 1968), still informative and focusing on the interaction of power; and Paul Sweezy et al., The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism (1976), a collection of Marxist debate as to what capitalism really was and when it began.On finance, see Earl J. Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 15011650 (1934, reprinted 1977), a classic that launched a continuing debate. Political and cultural influences are the subject of Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (1974), a Marxist view of the role of the state in the birth of modern capitalism; Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987), a lengthy and entertaining exploration; Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), on the impact of the culture of Reformation; and R.H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926, reissued 1984), a classic study of Calvinism and the capitalistic ethos.A broader approach to early modern society is offered, summarily, in Peter Burke, The Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Italy: Essays on Perception and Communication (1987), focusing on detail rather than central movements of early modern culture; Roger Chartier (ed.), Passions of the Renaissance (1989; originally published in French, 1986), a volume of essays dealing with the period from the Renaissance to Enlightenment, from the series A History of Private Life; Brian Pullan, The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of Venice, 15501670 (1983), an often poignant examination of ethnic relations; and Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1980; originally published in Italian, 1976), an excellent social history based on the story of an eccentric miller and his cosmological views.Politics and diplomacy are dealt with in many general histories of the period. Narrative and analytical accounts, with detailed bibliographies, are offered in J.R. Hale, Renaissance Europe, 14801520 (1971, reprinted 1985), G.R. Elton, Reformation Europe, 15171559 (1963); J.H. Elliott, Europe Divided, 15591598 (1968, reprinted 1985); and Geoffrey Parker, Europe in Crisis, 15981648 (1979), all four in the Fontana History of Europe series. G.R. Potter (ed.), The Renaissance, 14931520 (1957); G.R. Elton (ed.), The Reformation, 15201559, 2nd ed. (1990); R.B. Wernham (ed.), The Counter-Reformation and Price Revolution, 15591610 (1968); and J.P. Cooper (ed.), The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War, 160948/59 (1970), the first four volumes in The New Cambridge Modern History series, offer a sequence of chapters by various authors, thematically organized. H.G. Koenigsberger, George L. Mosse, and G.Q. Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd ed. (1989), treats the earlier part of the period. The last 50 years of the period, dominated by the genesis and course of continental war, are best approached through Geoffrey Parker (ed.), The Thirty Years' War, rev. ed. (1987). David Herlihy N. Geoffrey Parker The age of absolutism, 16481789 Gordon East, An Historical Geography of Europe, 5th ed. (1966), provides an informative introduction to geographic features influencing the history of the period. For definition, see H.D. Schmidt, The Establishment of Europe' as a Political Expression, The Historical Journal 9(2):172178 (1966). Main themes are covered in the essays of G.N. Clark, The Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. (1947, reprinted 1981); and the appropriate volumes of The New Cambridge Modern History series (1957 ). General surveys include E.N. Williams, The Ancien Rgime in Europe: Government and Society in the Major States, 16481789 (1970); D.H. Pennington, Seventeenth-Century Europe (1970); Geoffrey Treasure, The Making of Modern Europe, 16481780 (1985); M.S. Anderson, Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 17131783, 3rd ed. (1987); and William Doyle, The Old European Order, 16601800 (1978, reprinted 1984). Specific social and demographic questions are explored in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1000 (1971, reissued 1988; originally published in French, 1967); Michael W. Flinn, The European Demographic System, 15001820 (1981); Lucien Lefebvre, A New Kind of History: From the Writings of Febvre, trans. from French, ed. by Peter Burke (1973); Robert Mandrou, Introduction to Modern France, 15001640: An Essay in Historical Psychology (1975; originally published in French, 1961); Philippe Aris, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (1962, reissued 1979; originally published in French, 1960); John McManners, Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death Among Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France (1981); and Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World: A History of the Modern Sensibility (1983, also published as Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England, 15001800, 1983). See also Olwen H. Hufton, The Poor of Eighteenth-Century France, 17501789 (1974), for a study of poverty, with much about women; Michael R. Weisser, Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Europe (1979); and E.J. Hobsbawm, Bandits, rev. ed. (1981).On the peasantry, see Marc Bloch, French Rural History: An Essay on Its Basic Characteristics (1966, reprinted 1978; originally published in French, 1931); Jack M. Potter, May N. Diaz, and George M. Foster (eds.), Peasant Society (1967); Pierre Goubert, The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century (1986; originally published in French, 1982); Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia: From the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century (1961, reprinted 1971). The economic and social conditions in the urban areas are the subject of Gaston Roupnel, La Ville et la campagne au XVIIe sicle: tude sur les populations du pays dijonnais (1955); Orest Ranum, Paris in the Age of Absolutism (1968, reprinted 1979); and Gerald L. Burke, The Making of Dutch Towns: A Study in Urban Development from the Tenth to the Seventeenth Centuries (1956). On the aristocracy, see A. Goodwin (ed.), The European Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: Studies of the Nobilities of the Major European States in the Pre-Reform Era, 2nd ed. (1967); and Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment (1985; originally published in French, 1976). Economic questions are examined in the appropriate volumes of The Cambridge Economic History of Europe series (1966 ); Peter Earle (ed.), Essays in European Economic History, 15001800 (1974); and B.H. Slicher Van Bath, The Agrarian History of Western Europe, A.D. 5001850 (1963). G.N. Clark, Science and Social Welfare in the Age of Newton, 2nd ed. (1949, reissued 1970), looks at the connections between science and technology. For commerce and trade and their significance as a characteristic of the home countries, see D.C. Coleman (ed.), Revisions in Mercantilism (1969); Ralph Davis, The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (1973); J.H. Parry, Trade and Dominion: The European Oversea Empires in the Eighteenth Century (1971); and C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 16001800 (1965, reprinted 1977).Gerald R. Cragg, The Church and the Age of Reason, 16481789 (1960, reprinted 1985), provides a concise overview of the subject; and a comprehensive treatment is offered in E. Prclin and E. Jarry, Les Luttes politiques et doctrinales aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sicles, 2 vol. (195556). Specific significant topics in church history are surveyed in A.G. Dickens, The Counter Reformation (1968, reissued 1979); Jean Delumeau, Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire: A New View of the Counter-Reformation (1977, originally published in French, 1971); mile G. Lonard, A History of Protestantism: The Reformation (1965; originally published in French, 1961); Robert O. Crummey, The Old Believers & the World of Antichrist: The Vyg Community & the Russian State, 16941855 (1970); Jean Orcibal, Louis XIV et les Protestants: la cabale des accommodeurs de religion, la caisse des conversions, la rvocation de l'dit de Nantes (1951); James Brodrick, The Progress of the Jesuits, 155679 (1947, reprinted 1986); Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition (1965, reissued 1976); and John McManners, French Ecclesiastical Society Under the Ancien Rgime: A Study of Angers in the Eighteenth Century (1960). Political questions are discussed in Theodore K. Rabb, The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (1975); J.H. Shennan, The Origins of the Modern European State, 14501725 (1974); and A.R. Myers, Parliaments and Estates in Europe to 1789 (1975). Ragnhild Hatton (ed.), Louis XIV and Absolutism (1976), is a collection of articles, mostly translated from French. William F. Church, Richelieu and Reason of State (1973), is another study of absolutism. Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, 2 vol. (1978), is a political history. On resistance and revolts, see Trevor Aston (ed.), Crisis in Europe, 15601660 (1965, reissued 1975); Geoffrey Parker and Lesley M. Smith (eds.), The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century (1978); Perez Zagorin, Rebels and Rulers, 15001660, 2 vol. (1982); and Roland Mousnier, Peasant Uprisings in Seventeenth-Century France, Russia, and China (1971; originally published in French, 1967).Diplomacy tends to be subsumed into general histories. For the principles, though, see Albert Sorel, Europe and the French Revolution: The Political Traditions of the Old Rgime (1969; originally published in French, 1885); Jill Lisk, The Struggle for Supremacy in the Baltic, 16001725 (1967); Derek McKay and H.M. Scott, The Rise of the Great Powers, 16481815 (1983); Ragnhild Hatton (ed.), Louis XIV and Europe (1976); J.S. Bromley and E.H. Kossmann (eds.), Britain and the Netherlands in Europe and Asia (1968); and Mark A. Thomson et al., William III and Louis XIV: Essays 16801720 (1968). A starting point for the study of war is Michael Roberts, The Military Revolution, 15601660 (1956). A later contribution to the ensuing debate is Geoffrey Parker, Spain and the Netherlands, 15591659, rev. ed. (1990). The effects of war are treated in G.N. Clark, War and Society in the Seventeenth Century (1958, reprinted 1985); Andr Corvisier, Armies and Societies in Europe, 14941789 (1979; originally published in French, 1976); H.W. Koch, The Rise of Modern Warfare, 16181815 (1981); John Childs, Armies and Warfare in Europe, 16481789 (1982); and Christopher Duffy, The Army of Frederick the Great (1974). The Enlightenment The subject has attracted so vast a literature that only a limited selection can be offered. Peter Gay, The Enlightenment, an Interpretation, 2 vol. (196669, reprinted 1977), is a magisterial work with a comprehensive bibliography. The scientific revolution and the intellectual climate that fostered the Enlightenment are examined in A. Rupert Hall, From Galileo to Newton, 16301720 (1963, reprinted 1981); A. Wolf, A History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd ed. rev. by D. McKie (1952); Basil Willey, The Seventeenth Century Background: Studies in the Thought of the Age in Relation to Poetry and Religion (1934); Anthony Kenny, Descartes: Study of His Philosophy (1968, reissued 1987), Maurice Cranston, John Locke: A Biography (1957, reissued 1985); Frank E. Manuel, A Portrait of Isaac Newton (1968, reprinted 1990); Paul Hazard, The European Mind: The Critical Years, 16801715 (1953, reissued 1990; originally published in French, 1935); Alan Charles Kors and Paul J. Korshin (eds.), Anticipations of the Enlightenment in England, France, and Germany (1987); and Ira O. Wade, The Intellectual Origins of the French Enlightenment (1971).Compressed summaries are given in Norman Hampson, The Enlightenment (1968, reissued 1982); and Robert Anchor, The Enlightenment Tradition (1967, reissued 1979). A broader picture is presented in Roy Porter and Mikul Teich (eds.), The Enlightenment in National Context (1981). Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (1951, reissued 1979; originally published in German, 1932), considers the metaphysical basis of 18th-century thought. Important studies of individual thinkers include Elisabeth Labrousse, Pierre Bayle, 2 vol. (196364); Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu: