France in the Sixteenth Century

by Frederic J. Baumgartner

Both the golden age of the Renaissance state and the catastrophic era of the Wars of Religion, this fascinating period in French history has been oddly neglected by English-language historians. Professor Baumgartner's book fills a major gap in the textbook an accessible, fully current account which covers the principal political, economic and cultural themes from Francois I's successful centralization of the state, through France's near prostration under the Catholic-Huguenot civil war, and ending with the accession of Henri IV.

Genres: History, France

368 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1995

About the author

A specialist in the history of early modern France, Frederic Baumgartner is Professor of History at Virginia Tech University.

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes a look at the period in France from 1484 to 1614. A few sad black and white plates. And of course, the obligatory portrait of Henry VIIIs lifelong antagonist Francis I.

I did find the period from 1530 to 1562 an interesting read regarding an acceleration of population growth.

Tremendous pressure was put on the grain supply, which in turn raised the price of bread. This initiated a chain reaction of inflation in a society that had no concept of what inflation does to an economy.

I read this quite a while ago. It covered the span of 130 years.
The read was as dry as dust. Factual but no soul in this book.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this a good basic introduction to the period with some quibbles. The book is divided into three chronological sections—1484-1530, 1530-1562 and 1562-1614. Each of these sections is broken down into 6 chapters: the monarchy, the Church, the nobility, the “people,” justice and law, and finally “culture and thought.” This leads to the first of my criticisms—because the same period of time is reviewed for each chapter, and because there is naturally some overlap, this leads to some confusion and repetition. Nothing serious though. My second quibble is the very poor indexing. Multiple times I went to the index to refer back to the first mention of an obscure term to refresh my memory only to find that the term had not been indexed. This is a major flaw in a book that is clearly aimed at the academic marketplace.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like, maybe, this historian doesn't know what a rigorous methodology is? A broadly synthetic work, and useful as a reference, but this type of history has been or ought to have been dead a long time since. Basically approaches the sixteenth century as the necessary precursor to the French Revolution, which Baumgartner clearly reads as an inevitability. A wholly irresponsible way of doing history.

[Susan Abernethy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Link to my review of this book:

https://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2016/...