Hugh Trevor-Roper - The age of expansion
Europe and the world 1559-1660
Three themes dominate the period covered by this book. The first is the consolidation of the new nation-states. Pope and Emperor dwindle in stature; the monarchs of France, Spain and Austria control the map of Europe. The Netherlands create a new mercantile imperialist republic, while England goes through a peculiar transformation ending, typically, in compromise. The second theme is religious persecution and the wars between Catholic and Protestant. Germany and the Netherlands split; France just manages to keep intact; England swings between Anglicanism and Puritanism; Spain hardens into a Catholic police-state. The third is the expansion of Europe over the whole world. Colonists settle in America, and trading missions (often indistinguishable from conquest) are constantly seeking advantage round the rich empires of Asia.
A changing world-picture
Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, the liveliest mind in 17th century studies, here assembles a team of historians (listed on the back flap of this jacket) who look at the whole subject anew, presenting in condensed and readable form the most up-to- date professional research. The book begins with his own lucid analysis of the century, so divided politically but to a large extent united intellectually and artistically. There follow accounts of Spain, the Netherlands and Central Europe, leading to a brilliant exposition of the turmoil of the Thirty Years’ War, and separate chapters on France and England. The focus then shifts east - to Poland and Russia, the three great Islamic nations (Turkey, Persia and India) and finally, on the fringes of Western civilization, the half understood empires of China and Japan. World history is by the 17th century essentially a single discipline; no one can understand Europe without America or Asia without Europe - a fact too often forgotten in specialist works.
Art as history
This was one of the great ages of realistic illustration, and every aspect of the period is copiously reflected in art—from cartoons to altarpieces and from Dutch stilllifes to Japanese woodcuts. One of the distinctions of this volume is that it can reproduce with extreme precision and in large format hundreds of these absorbing pictorial documents, lending a new dimension to the study of history. This is a book for delight as much as for instruction, for the layman and for the scholar, indeed for everyone with an interest in what has gone to make the world of today.
Eleven distinguished authors
Introduction : The Baroque Century
Hugh Trevor-Roper MA
Regius Professor of Modern History and Fellow of Oriel College University of Oxford
Spain’s Dominion : Problems and policies of a world power
Henry Kamen BA, DPhil Lecturer in History University of Warwick
The Divided Netherlands Rebellion, liberty and nationhood
Charles Wilson MA
Professor of Modern History and Fellow of Jesus College University of Cambridge
Peace in Germany : The Empire before 1618
Claus-Peter Clasen MA
Professor of History University of California
Thirty Years’ War : The European Civil War
H. G. Koenigsberger MA, PhD
Professor of History Cornell University
France : Monarchy and People: From Henri III to Louis XIV
Menna Prestwich MA
Lecturer in Modern History and Fellow of St Hilda’s College University of Oxford
Britain Transformed : Crown, conscience and Commonwealth
G. E. Aylmer MA, DPhil Professor of History University of York
Slav Nations : Poland, and the evolution of Russia
Henry Willetts MA
Reader in Russian History and Fellow of St Anthony’s College
University of Oxford
Empires of Islam : Muslim India, Persia and Turkey
Peter Avery MA
Lecturer in Oriental Studies University of Cambridge
The Oriental World : Ming China and the unification of Japan
Ivan Morris MA
Professor of Japanese History Columbia University
Hans Bielenstein MA, PhD, Fil Dr
Professor of Chinese History Columbia University
Europe - PDF
