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Penguin History of Europe #5
La cristianità in frantumi. Europa 1517-1648
Traduzione di Michele Sampaolo . 8vo pp. XV-820 Rilegato, sovracoperta (hard cover, dust jacket) Ottimo (Fine)
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First published July 3, 2014
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July 18, 2019"This book has been written by an intellectual jackdaw, let loose in large libraries" (p.683). Despite that the text is more coherent than you might fear. On the one hand the dates 1517 and 1648 themselves suggest a unifying theme - religious division leading to violent conflicts which seem unresolvable until the conclusion of the peace of Westphalia.
At the same time there is the title 'Christendom destroyed', here the argument is that the concept of Europe emerges through contrast with the Americas, far East and Russia in terms of lifestyles, beliefs and political forms, replacing the older notion of Christendom. However, Christendom is a problematic concept, but assumed here to be non-controversial - we think: what about the Jews, Muslims and pagan Sami? What about the Hussites and the decades while 'Christendom' was divided between the followers of different Popes (mostly two but once three)? Even if we assume some more fundamental unity, what might that be? A culture of Latin learning and an elite republic of letters was one of the few things not destroyed by religious strife, maybe because it is a Sunday morning as I type but I might be inclined to believe that a concept of Christendom was the product and not the casualty of Europe's religious divisions during that period. But anyway in passing one of the things we learn I think from this book is with the increasing interconnections between Iberia and the New World, the Atlantic states and the far East, and even the Russian realm and Siberia, that a history of Europe as a distinct unit is itself a quixotic project.
As a point of comparison I have read a few of the old Fontana histories of Europe, this has a bigger scope, it is neither as chronologically strict nor as thematic - eg arts integrated into discussion, paintings and literature used to illuminate the points he is making, for example Greengrass points out that we can read the windmills that Don Quixote charges against as a specifically Dutch symbol and so a comment on the Quixotic nature of the seemingly endless war against the Dutch (Cervantes own brother served in Flanders even as the author himself fought the Turks) I'm not sure but that idea brings Rabelais back to mind and the injunction that we are all better off when we live in peace with our neighbours and limit to use of bladed weapons to doing damage to the sausages on our breakfast plates. Certainly to us as modern readers the eighty years war between the Spanish and the Dutch was Quixotic and typical of the wars of this period covered by this book in that governments sought by force of arms to crush matters of conscience down to simple conformity, in France, Austria and Bavaria this proved possible, elsewhere particularly when the ultimate authority was physically remote this wasn't easily accomplished, the quixotic nature of the enterprise runs the risk of blinding us to the prodigious skill and effort involved (or I suppose wasted) in juggling finances and moving people and equipment about Europe and indeed during the Thirty Years war there was an eventual shift from very big armies, to much smaller ones, not because everyone was dead, but because it was what could be realistically financed from taxation. Before that and outside of France, warfare was the business of entrepreneurs, men with the contacts and relationships in the financial communities to be able to finance armies, loan repayments were met by loot and expropriation - if they were on the winning side. The most successful, for a while, of these men was Wallenstein, his supply network crossed confessional lines even though he moved armies across Germany in the service of a Catholic Emperor who pursued a policy of Catholicisation. His chief finance man however could see no other exit than committing suicide when Wallenstein was requested to disband his armies. Some, like Brecht's Mother courage and her children could not afford for the fighting to stop.
The earlier chapters of this book are more of a kind of dense sociological survey of Europe in the period, and discussion of specific events is limited. The later chapters have more of a political narrative, but because it is covering much of Europe it is quite jumpy and impressively concise. It is pretty good as an opener to the period and one can see the general context to Descartes, Pascal, Cominus, and Cervantes, though I felt the arts suffered a little in not having their own space, the following volume in this series - The Pursuit of Glory I remember as more fun generally and having a more interesting discussion of court culture, but that book is about the age of Louis XIV and his imitators and secondly I read it some time ago and everything has a tendency to look rosier in hindsight.
The major analytical work of the political chapters comes at the end of the book - on page 678 of 680, he states that: (1) the easy shift from regional to national problems indicates the changing ambitions of social movements and the potential of new media (2) that protest movements and armed resistance tended to be led by conservative figures claiming to preserve law, religion and tradition against the alien, unGodly, or untrustworthy (3) "profound anxiety created paralysis, but also dynamic creativity & change, hyperactivity as well as passivity" (p.678), I have the sneaking suspicion that such analysis is so broad as to be almost universality applicable from the introduction of printing onwards (and maybe already before).
Occasionally the English is idiosyncratic - non matching tenses for instance, it is comprehensible but odd. No footnotes or references, a short bibliography all of English language books points this as a book aiming at a broad Anglophone readership with access to well stocked libraries. I had thought that Lyndal Roper's Martin Luther: renegade and prophet would lead naturally into this and that Holbien's The Dance of Death could be a good accompaniment, but they were not, this is (necessarily) a very high level overview of European social and political history, good for what it is, if not explosive with insight.
At the same time there is the title 'Christendom destroyed', here the argument is that the concept of Europe emerges through contrast with the Americas, far East and Russia in terms of lifestyles, beliefs and political forms, replacing the older notion of Christendom. However, Christendom is a problematic concept, but assumed here to be non-controversial - we think: what about the Jews, Muslims and pagan Sami? What about the Hussites and the decades while 'Christendom' was divided between the followers of different Popes (mostly two but once three)? Even if we assume some more fundamental unity, what might that be? A culture of Latin learning and an elite republic of letters was one of the few things not destroyed by religious strife, maybe because it is a Sunday morning as I type but I might be inclined to believe that a concept of Christendom was the product and not the casualty of Europe's religious divisions during that period. But anyway in passing one of the things we learn I think from this book is with the increasing interconnections between Iberia and the New World, the Atlantic states and the far East, and even the Russian realm and Siberia, that a history of Europe as a distinct unit is itself a quixotic project.
As a point of comparison I have read a few of the old Fontana histories of Europe, this has a bigger scope, it is neither as chronologically strict nor as thematic - eg arts integrated into discussion, paintings and literature used to illuminate the points he is making, for example Greengrass points out that we can read the windmills that Don Quixote charges against as a specifically Dutch symbol and so a comment on the Quixotic nature of the seemingly endless war against the Dutch (Cervantes own brother served in Flanders even as the author himself fought the Turks) I'm not sure but that idea brings Rabelais back to mind and the injunction that we are all better off when we live in peace with our neighbours and limit to use of bladed weapons to doing damage to the sausages on our breakfast plates. Certainly to us as modern readers the eighty years war between the Spanish and the Dutch was Quixotic and typical of the wars of this period covered by this book in that governments sought by force of arms to crush matters of conscience down to simple conformity, in France, Austria and Bavaria this proved possible, elsewhere particularly when the ultimate authority was physically remote this wasn't easily accomplished, the quixotic nature of the enterprise runs the risk of blinding us to the prodigious skill and effort involved (or I suppose wasted) in juggling finances and moving people and equipment about Europe and indeed during the Thirty Years war there was an eventual shift from very big armies, to much smaller ones, not because everyone was dead, but because it was what could be realistically financed from taxation. Before that and outside of France, warfare was the business of entrepreneurs, men with the contacts and relationships in the financial communities to be able to finance armies, loan repayments were met by loot and expropriation - if they were on the winning side. The most successful, for a while, of these men was Wallenstein, his supply network crossed confessional lines even though he moved armies across Germany in the service of a Catholic Emperor who pursued a policy of Catholicisation. His chief finance man however could see no other exit than committing suicide when Wallenstein was requested to disband his armies. Some, like Brecht's Mother courage and her children could not afford for the fighting to stop.
The earlier chapters of this book are more of a kind of dense sociological survey of Europe in the period, and discussion of specific events is limited. The later chapters have more of a political narrative, but because it is covering much of Europe it is quite jumpy and impressively concise. It is pretty good as an opener to the period and one can see the general context to Descartes, Pascal, Cominus, and Cervantes, though I felt the arts suffered a little in not having their own space, the following volume in this series - The Pursuit of Glory I remember as more fun generally and having a more interesting discussion of court culture, but that book is about the age of Louis XIV and his imitators and secondly I read it some time ago and everything has a tendency to look rosier in hindsight.
The major analytical work of the political chapters comes at the end of the book - on page 678 of 680, he states that: (1) the easy shift from regional to national problems indicates the changing ambitions of social movements and the potential of new media (2) that protest movements and armed resistance tended to be led by conservative figures claiming to preserve law, religion and tradition against the alien, unGodly, or untrustworthy (3) "profound anxiety created paralysis, but also dynamic creativity & change, hyperactivity as well as passivity" (p.678), I have the sneaking suspicion that such analysis is so broad as to be almost universality applicable from the introduction of printing onwards (and maybe already before).
Occasionally the English is idiosyncratic - non matching tenses for instance, it is comprehensible but odd. No footnotes or references, a short bibliography all of English language books points this as a book aiming at a broad Anglophone readership with access to well stocked libraries. I had thought that Lyndal Roper's Martin Luther: renegade and prophet would lead naturally into this and that Holbien's The Dance of Death could be a good accompaniment, but they were not, this is (necessarily) a very high level overview of European social and political history, good for what it is, if not explosive with insight.
January 11, 2015
Pity the historian who tries to write for people who are not professional historians, for all her options are bad:
i) write in order to sell books to people who want their own prejudices confirmed. See: presidential biographies; new atheist pamphlets; moralistic narratives of war.
ii) write *kind of* for non-professional-historians, but in such a way that you will satisfy other professional historians. They also want their prejudices confirmed, but have some *mighty precise* prejudices. See: books about 1-4 under-represented people over 1-5 years; historiographical polemics; narrative-less fact explosions.
iii) write specifically for intelligent non-professional-historians, while knowing that they'll get angry with you when your book isn't a perfect narrative, with themes, that tells them something new about the past rather than something new about the state of historiography.
And if, like any decent person confronting this dilemma, our historian chooses (iii), she must also be aware that she's trying something that's more or less impossible on the level of craft.
Once upon a time, none of this was a problem. History was the craft of creating narratives that explained the past, where "the past" was understood as the Big Events and Personalities and how they developed. So good history could focus on answering questions like "Why did the English Revolution happen when it did?" or "Why was there an industrial revolution?" or "What caused the Reformation?"
Other than people who still write history as if it were half a dozen white men Creating History from their armchairs in Virginia, however, historians realized that historical causation is a very tricky beast. Nobody can possibly believe that there was *a* cause of the English or Industrial or French or American Revolution, or the Reformation. If you're writing a historical monograph, no problem: you just say, hey, this thing here (e.g., the printing industry/rural poverty/collapsing legitimacy) contributed to the French Revolution, too.
But if you're writing for non-historians, you can't do that. What we non-historians want is a broad overview of the events, and some good thoughts on what caused the events.
But professional historians now have to spend much of their time arguing that x can't have been a cause, or even that event y was not, in fact, an event (e.g., the industrial revolution: thing, or not?) And they know the 'causes' are more interesting and important than the 'events' in most ways: a given peasant rebellion might be a cool story, but what really matters is the price of wheat.
And you know what tables describing the changing price of wheat do *not* do? They don't interest non-historians, unless you can put it in a narrative. In other words: writing history for non-historians, while remaining a responsible historian, is nigh impossible. To begin with, you must make sure that you book doesn't privilege events over things like the price of wheat; you must be sure not to "impose" a narrative on events, because that would distort our understanding of the events. At the same time, the intelligent non-historian requires--dare I say it?--some elegance, some entertainment, in her history books. Some unifying characteristic that she can hold onto while wading through the endless examples of migration patterns. Some dash.
Mark Greengrass has done his damnedest to deal with this problem, and he has not solved it. There's an astonishing amount of information in this book, and he is clearly a responsible historian. I'm ready to believe anything he tells me. What I'm not ready for is a text that makes a fairly unobjectionable statement (say, "most armies at time x comprised multiple nationalities and a large number of what we would call mercenaries"), and then follows it up with fifteen examples of this. I don't need the examples; that's for professional historians who need to have these things proved to them.
I'm not ready for a text that, while being so careful to index every statement about early modern Europe* to fifteen facts, is perfectly willing to make wild and ludicrous generalizations about Europe before the sixteenth century.
I'm not ready for a text that includes paragraphs like this:
"[Before the Reformation the] religion of the laity was very different as between the learned and the unlettered. Such differences were recognized in contemporary debates... the concerns of the laity were influenced by and overlapped with those of the clergy.. the evidence for what people believed is as ambiguous as the analytical categories are crude... When the Franciscans began their missionary work in the New World in the sixteenth century, the gulf between their religious experience and that of the Amerindians was immense. The same cannot be said for the distances separating... the laity and the clergy in Europe on the eve of the Reformation."
To sum up: the laity and the clergy had entirely different religious experiences before the Reformation, though we don't know what experiences anyone had, and there really was no difference between the religious experience of the clergy and the laity before the Reformation, at which point there ceased to be any difference between them.
Now, to be fair, I am ready for much of what Greengrass does. He usually writes fairly clearly, except (irony?) when he's writing about communication technologies, at which point he's prone to using phrases like "the organizational and structural means of functioning at a distance deepened." And this is an excellent, responsible attempt to write the kind of book that almost nobody a) can and/or b) cares to write anymore: large scale history that does justice to the complexities of human life without pretending that there is nothing in the world other than individuals making bad decisions.
So I can recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. If you want a good read, of course, there are far better books out there. But they'll all sacrifice some of the nitty gritty to large narratives like "the Reformation," "the thirty years war," and so on.
**************************
* Some historians would object to my using this term, because it imposes a unity on such a diverse period and geographical region. To them I say: THAT'S HOW LANGUAGE WORKS YOU IDIOTS. A friend of mine, who actually is an historian, has a different analysis of this: people who refuse 'grand narratives' or 'structures' end up writing books about one person doing one very particular thing. But that person is only interesting if s/he gives us insight into a larger narrative or structure. So...
i) write in order to sell books to people who want their own prejudices confirmed. See: presidential biographies; new atheist pamphlets; moralistic narratives of war.
ii) write *kind of* for non-professional-historians, but in such a way that you will satisfy other professional historians. They also want their prejudices confirmed, but have some *mighty precise* prejudices. See: books about 1-4 under-represented people over 1-5 years; historiographical polemics; narrative-less fact explosions.
iii) write specifically for intelligent non-professional-historians, while knowing that they'll get angry with you when your book isn't a perfect narrative, with themes, that tells them something new about the past rather than something new about the state of historiography.
And if, like any decent person confronting this dilemma, our historian chooses (iii), she must also be aware that she's trying something that's more or less impossible on the level of craft.
Once upon a time, none of this was a problem. History was the craft of creating narratives that explained the past, where "the past" was understood as the Big Events and Personalities and how they developed. So good history could focus on answering questions like "Why did the English Revolution happen when it did?" or "Why was there an industrial revolution?" or "What caused the Reformation?"
Other than people who still write history as if it were half a dozen white men Creating History from their armchairs in Virginia, however, historians realized that historical causation is a very tricky beast. Nobody can possibly believe that there was *a* cause of the English or Industrial or French or American Revolution, or the Reformation. If you're writing a historical monograph, no problem: you just say, hey, this thing here (e.g., the printing industry/rural poverty/collapsing legitimacy) contributed to the French Revolution, too.
But if you're writing for non-historians, you can't do that. What we non-historians want is a broad overview of the events, and some good thoughts on what caused the events.
But professional historians now have to spend much of their time arguing that x can't have been a cause, or even that event y was not, in fact, an event (e.g., the industrial revolution: thing, or not?) And they know the 'causes' are more interesting and important than the 'events' in most ways: a given peasant rebellion might be a cool story, but what really matters is the price of wheat.
And you know what tables describing the changing price of wheat do *not* do? They don't interest non-historians, unless you can put it in a narrative. In other words: writing history for non-historians, while remaining a responsible historian, is nigh impossible. To begin with, you must make sure that you book doesn't privilege events over things like the price of wheat; you must be sure not to "impose" a narrative on events, because that would distort our understanding of the events. At the same time, the intelligent non-historian requires--dare I say it?--some elegance, some entertainment, in her history books. Some unifying characteristic that she can hold onto while wading through the endless examples of migration patterns. Some dash.
Mark Greengrass has done his damnedest to deal with this problem, and he has not solved it. There's an astonishing amount of information in this book, and he is clearly a responsible historian. I'm ready to believe anything he tells me. What I'm not ready for is a text that makes a fairly unobjectionable statement (say, "most armies at time x comprised multiple nationalities and a large number of what we would call mercenaries"), and then follows it up with fifteen examples of this. I don't need the examples; that's for professional historians who need to have these things proved to them.
I'm not ready for a text that, while being so careful to index every statement about early modern Europe* to fifteen facts, is perfectly willing to make wild and ludicrous generalizations about Europe before the sixteenth century.
I'm not ready for a text that includes paragraphs like this:
"[Before the Reformation the] religion of the laity was very different as between the learned and the unlettered. Such differences were recognized in contemporary debates... the concerns of the laity were influenced by and overlapped with those of the clergy.. the evidence for what people believed is as ambiguous as the analytical categories are crude... When the Franciscans began their missionary work in the New World in the sixteenth century, the gulf between their religious experience and that of the Amerindians was immense. The same cannot be said for the distances separating... the laity and the clergy in Europe on the eve of the Reformation."
To sum up: the laity and the clergy had entirely different religious experiences before the Reformation, though we don't know what experiences anyone had, and there really was no difference between the religious experience of the clergy and the laity before the Reformation, at which point there ceased to be any difference between them.
Now, to be fair, I am ready for much of what Greengrass does. He usually writes fairly clearly, except (irony?) when he's writing about communication technologies, at which point he's prone to using phrases like "the organizational and structural means of functioning at a distance deepened." And this is an excellent, responsible attempt to write the kind of book that almost nobody a) can and/or b) cares to write anymore: large scale history that does justice to the complexities of human life without pretending that there is nothing in the world other than individuals making bad decisions.
So I can recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. If you want a good read, of course, there are far better books out there. But they'll all sacrifice some of the nitty gritty to large narratives like "the Reformation," "the thirty years war," and so on.
**************************
* Some historians would object to my using this term, because it imposes a unity on such a diverse period and geographical region. To them I say: THAT'S HOW LANGUAGE WORKS YOU IDIOTS. A friend of mine, who actually is an historian, has a different analysis of this: people who refuse 'grand narratives' or 'structures' end up writing books about one person doing one very particular thing. But that person is only interesting if s/he gives us insight into a larger narrative or structure. So...
August 13, 2018
Apparently the prior book in the series covering the renaissance won’t be out until next year..... bad show Penguin!..... but I’m going to jump ahead to this book & continue with the series & come back to book 4 when its available.
The title of the book is to be much loved by this Pagan!
As always (with this series) Im going to break it down & give a flavour of the contents via each chapter/part & have the conclusions/marks/thoughts towards the back of the review. So am saying skip to the end for those that don’t want a long meandering read......
The book opens with maps (very detailed too), list of Art illustrations, list of Genealogies & an introduction which refers to a travel account written by Dutchman David De Vries published in 1655 who travelled all over the world of his day. The rest of the intro is about Christendom & where it has led Europe to in the millennium it has been present.
Each Part is given a title – The fall of Western Christendom is first up & within this part are sub-sections showing clearly the part/role that various nations/personages/institutes/Ideals had to play in the subject/matter in question which are further broken down into sub-sections for each personage/idea/concept. I like the author’s style & the layout which is concise & clearly illustrates the role of each player/idea in the narrative to the title posed/related for each chapter. The subject covers the entire period of the book 1517-1648 so there’s no back n forth or waiting for further chapters to get the full story of the topic in question which is good in some ways but in others it relies on the reader having some priory knowledge of the personages involved – does that make sense??
I feel i’m going to learn a lot already & make semblance of the grainy parts I already (think?) know.
Moving on we come to Part 2 which is titled “From the Silver Age to the Iron Century” where we start with Human replenishment. The chapter starts with a look at human social-economics & covers such base things as disease, diet, migrations & habitat which is interesting (and well presented in the narrative) in that it builds up an initial picture of mankind for the era, which is useful as we’ve jumped 200 years or so! The next section moves onto the Urban & Rural worlds talking about how cities/towns rose & fell over the period whilst other regions continued to increase tripling in population over the period of the book. The Rhineland corridor sees the biggest rise which includes Northern Italy in its sphere whilst cities like Rome virtually stagnate, ebb & flow is seen all around Europe as populations flock to urban centres & Europe finally surpasses the Chinese model come the end of the period of this book. This section also covers peasant revolts of which there seems to be dozens during the period across the continent which results in 100’s of thousands killed either in battle or executed as prisoners or through trials, quite a grizzly period in our history & summit new for my learning. On finance & fiscal matters which I had expected as the title infers, for this part we learn about debt, inflation & the impact of Spanish Gold & Silver on the European market which its fair to say flooded it via the looting of the Indies & Americas. The impact of nobility & wealth is also discussed.
The one thing that jumps out in this chapter is that its not necessarily chronologically presented & you dart around a lot both in terms of date & region/country in Europe, some of the topics are of more interest than others but all tend to treat the phenomena’s discussed as a whole in relation to Europe.
Part 3 is titled “Grasping the World” & starts with “Europe in the world” & as the title implies talks about colonial expansion by the European powers starting with the Spanish in the Americas & the Portuguese in the East Indies. Its a basic introduction & if your familiar with the two aforementioned powers along with the Dutch & English powers of the time there’s not a lot knew to learn but it fits well with our story. The part I did enjoy (thought I was?) was (finally) finding out what was going on in the East of Europe! However I have to say the narrative of the Muscovy relied heavily on you already knowing their history as the narrative involved relayed itself within the context of the books title..... events were mentioned as well as certain people but jus brushed over & yer left with wanting to know more about them, their history etc. This chapter relies heavily on you the reader already knowing the history of Europe overseas. We move onto “Heavens & earth observed” which if you like astrology you’ll enjoy (Nostradamus gets a mention)........moving on....... Alchemy too is featured & the chapter morphs into one of science/medicine (rediscovered from the age of antiquity) albeit in the context of some of it being “magic” to man of the period & at odds with Christianity (heresy), some parts (Copernicus & Galileo) being more of interest than others ....... part 3 ends with “Being in touch” which covers literacy & languages giving insight into the import of each on the landscape of Europe.
Christendom afflicted is the next part (part 4) Split into 3 sections with the first being entitled “Politics & Empire in the Age of Charles V” which is dedicated to the major conflicts around Europe of the period through the various dynasties/countries covering The 100 years war, The Italian wars & the Ottomans in the Balkans. All covered in subsections giving an overview of the major events of each conflict. To really know about them you would have to study further as this book only gives the reader a snapshot. The chapters then move through the dynasties of the Habsburgs & the Valois who were the major players in Europe for the period, in fact you could go as far as say they shaped it through their politics, intermarrying & their strive for power. Next section is called simply “Schism” & enters into the realms of the Protestant reformation, going straight to its origin & heart. It’s quite detailed & goes through the major players & events bit by bit...... have to say it’s this type of history narrative I don’t really enjoy especially when it revolves splits in theology, not a subject close to my heart...... i’m glad when it’s done but if you want to know all about Lutheranism & the split from the Catholic church you wont be disappointed as its all laid out. The final part “Reaction, repression, reform” shows how the reformation spread across Europe & the impact it has mostly in Eastern Europe & then lastly covers the story of Henry VIII.
Part 5 is entitled “Christian Commonwealths in Contention” & this is where we see good ol religion causing suffering in its name with “Conflicts in the name of God” being the first chapter which is aptly named as we make a tour of Europe detailing all the religious conflicts of the era covering such topics as “The year of wonder” (Religious intolerance in the Netherlands), Huguenots, Spanish expansion of Christianity throughout it’s Empire, The Catholic League in France.... amongst others & it really is a continent in turmoil in the predominantly Catholic regions. The next chapter is “Living with religious divisions” which is the flip-side to the opening chapter in that it relays some of the communities that did try to live side by side although they are lesser in number or successful as those in conflict. We learn of the opening experiments which began in the Swiss/German region where those of differing religions tried two different ways, that of sharing space (living side by side) OR lived in separate towns/villages (kept apart). Poland-Lithuania was another region where they tried to co-exist having Catholic/Orthodox/Jewish & paganism all co-habiting but it has to be said that the Catholics were the worst dissenters causing riots, unrest & even murdering those with opposing religious views to their own....... “Churches & the world” sees us revisit the Americas & the impact of Christianity upon the indigenous population; inquisition rears its head as do the Jesuits & other orders, the council of Trent & finally the supernatural with a paragraph or two about witches where we learn that around 38,000 were executed between 1450 – 1715 (most before 1650)! The final chapter in part 5 carries us to “The waning of crusades” & immerses us directly into the Ottoman Empire & its impact across Europe on Christianity, we learn also about outside threats to the Ottomans from other regions, namely Iran & Morocco.
The Final part is called “Christian states in disarray” & by now i’m reading paragraphs which sound familiarly from prior chapters? Or are they? Or is it likely purely down to the layout of the book where we revisit overlapping subjects..... This part deals with the major states of the time & the impact they have on each other, mostly through conflict but first we start with “The business of states” which reveals the major players & the make-up of the nations of the period. Next chapter is entitled “States in confrontation” where we learn mostly about the Habsburg’s (Spanish & Austrian) warring with all n sundry across Europe, revolutions are covered in this chapter as well as the open suppression of Protestantism be it through trial & execution or exile. Denmark, Sweden & Bohemia are covered too although as usual in small comparison to the likes of France. “War at large” runs along the same theme but it widens the conflicts across the whole continent of Europe. We learn of states like Poland-Lithuania as they take on Sweden & I have to ask “Where did they evolve from?” “Did i miss summit from earlier?” “Aren’t they separate countries?” They are questions that I find myself asking a lot in the final few chapters as I will it all to a conclusion.........
Final rating – At the start I was quite enthused but come journeys end I’ve found that last part quite a grind & willing it all to end......... A final rating of three (rounded up from 2.75) I think, dead centre with equal measure of intrigue & real learning tempered by dreary endless names/dates with no real substance/ability to learn from leaving me bored stupid! A complete mixed bag in reality but a book i’d recommend as I believe everyone will get summit new from it or at least find interest in certain sections – I DID struggle with the religious aspect of the book ie they’re was a LOT of it during this period of European history (The reformation) but it was included in such depth (for obvious reason I appreciate) & for anyone wanting to know more about the subject it’s certainly a good place to start as it covers a lot of the elements / factions. Overall though, I think with the level of detail this book demonstrates, you will at first require background knowledge of the lie of the land before you start, so you can make semblance of it all. For me certain texts/topics I could follow readily (prior knowledge) whereas others I felt I was thrown in the deep end and I struggled to follow or understand what was going on – I was like, hang on, you jus jumped to the end part, where’s the background to all this?
A timeline at the back of the book would have been very useful which the first in the series had but the rest have foregone.....
As to my quest: to learn about the formation of Europe & its peoples..... I’m not too sure this one hit the spot fully as when it did cover the subject we went backwards (akin to book 2) by being assaulted by names/dates of people we would already have had to know about or at least the history/context thereof. I also found the format (jumping from one topic to another, always starting from the beginning) prevented learning about a developing Europe as a whole if talking in terms of countries/empires (i.e. The Austrian Empire under the Habsburgs). I also felt that some topics (that overlapped) were repeated in later chapters giving at times a kinda disjointed feel to the overall read & that the last part was a real chore to read.
Onwards I go.......
PS I Dont believe I’m going to get this series complete in a year as the next book weighs in at around 700 pages too.......
The title of the book is to be much loved by this Pagan!
As always (with this series) Im going to break it down & give a flavour of the contents via each chapter/part & have the conclusions/marks/thoughts towards the back of the review. So am saying skip to the end for those that don’t want a long meandering read......
The book opens with maps (very detailed too), list of Art illustrations, list of Genealogies & an introduction which refers to a travel account written by Dutchman David De Vries published in 1655 who travelled all over the world of his day. The rest of the intro is about Christendom & where it has led Europe to in the millennium it has been present.
Each Part is given a title – The fall of Western Christendom is first up & within this part are sub-sections showing clearly the part/role that various nations/personages/institutes/Ideals had to play in the subject/matter in question which are further broken down into sub-sections for each personage/idea/concept. I like the author’s style & the layout which is concise & clearly illustrates the role of each player/idea in the narrative to the title posed/related for each chapter. The subject covers the entire period of the book 1517-1648 so there’s no back n forth or waiting for further chapters to get the full story of the topic in question which is good in some ways but in others it relies on the reader having some priory knowledge of the personages involved – does that make sense??
I feel i’m going to learn a lot already & make semblance of the grainy parts I already (think?) know.
Moving on we come to Part 2 which is titled “From the Silver Age to the Iron Century” where we start with Human replenishment. The chapter starts with a look at human social-economics & covers such base things as disease, diet, migrations & habitat which is interesting (and well presented in the narrative) in that it builds up an initial picture of mankind for the era, which is useful as we’ve jumped 200 years or so! The next section moves onto the Urban & Rural worlds talking about how cities/towns rose & fell over the period whilst other regions continued to increase tripling in population over the period of the book. The Rhineland corridor sees the biggest rise which includes Northern Italy in its sphere whilst cities like Rome virtually stagnate, ebb & flow is seen all around Europe as populations flock to urban centres & Europe finally surpasses the Chinese model come the end of the period of this book. This section also covers peasant revolts of which there seems to be dozens during the period across the continent which results in 100’s of thousands killed either in battle or executed as prisoners or through trials, quite a grizzly period in our history & summit new for my learning. On finance & fiscal matters which I had expected as the title infers, for this part we learn about debt, inflation & the impact of Spanish Gold & Silver on the European market which its fair to say flooded it via the looting of the Indies & Americas. The impact of nobility & wealth is also discussed.
The one thing that jumps out in this chapter is that its not necessarily chronologically presented & you dart around a lot both in terms of date & region/country in Europe, some of the topics are of more interest than others but all tend to treat the phenomena’s discussed as a whole in relation to Europe.
Part 3 is titled “Grasping the World” & starts with “Europe in the world” & as the title implies talks about colonial expansion by the European powers starting with the Spanish in the Americas & the Portuguese in the East Indies. Its a basic introduction & if your familiar with the two aforementioned powers along with the Dutch & English powers of the time there’s not a lot knew to learn but it fits well with our story. The part I did enjoy (thought I was?) was (finally) finding out what was going on in the East of Europe! However I have to say the narrative of the Muscovy relied heavily on you already knowing their history as the narrative involved relayed itself within the context of the books title..... events were mentioned as well as certain people but jus brushed over & yer left with wanting to know more about them, their history etc. This chapter relies heavily on you the reader already knowing the history of Europe overseas. We move onto “Heavens & earth observed” which if you like astrology you’ll enjoy (Nostradamus gets a mention)........moving on....... Alchemy too is featured & the chapter morphs into one of science/medicine (rediscovered from the age of antiquity) albeit in the context of some of it being “magic” to man of the period & at odds with Christianity (heresy), some parts (Copernicus & Galileo) being more of interest than others ....... part 3 ends with “Being in touch” which covers literacy & languages giving insight into the import of each on the landscape of Europe.
Christendom afflicted is the next part (part 4) Split into 3 sections with the first being entitled “Politics & Empire in the Age of Charles V” which is dedicated to the major conflicts around Europe of the period through the various dynasties/countries covering The 100 years war, The Italian wars & the Ottomans in the Balkans. All covered in subsections giving an overview of the major events of each conflict. To really know about them you would have to study further as this book only gives the reader a snapshot. The chapters then move through the dynasties of the Habsburgs & the Valois who were the major players in Europe for the period, in fact you could go as far as say they shaped it through their politics, intermarrying & their strive for power. Next section is called simply “Schism” & enters into the realms of the Protestant reformation, going straight to its origin & heart. It’s quite detailed & goes through the major players & events bit by bit...... have to say it’s this type of history narrative I don’t really enjoy especially when it revolves splits in theology, not a subject close to my heart...... i’m glad when it’s done but if you want to know all about Lutheranism & the split from the Catholic church you wont be disappointed as its all laid out. The final part “Reaction, repression, reform” shows how the reformation spread across Europe & the impact it has mostly in Eastern Europe & then lastly covers the story of Henry VIII.
Part 5 is entitled “Christian Commonwealths in Contention” & this is where we see good ol religion causing suffering in its name with “Conflicts in the name of God” being the first chapter which is aptly named as we make a tour of Europe detailing all the religious conflicts of the era covering such topics as “The year of wonder” (Religious intolerance in the Netherlands), Huguenots, Spanish expansion of Christianity throughout it’s Empire, The Catholic League in France.... amongst others & it really is a continent in turmoil in the predominantly Catholic regions. The next chapter is “Living with religious divisions” which is the flip-side to the opening chapter in that it relays some of the communities that did try to live side by side although they are lesser in number or successful as those in conflict. We learn of the opening experiments which began in the Swiss/German region where those of differing religions tried two different ways, that of sharing space (living side by side) OR lived in separate towns/villages (kept apart). Poland-Lithuania was another region where they tried to co-exist having Catholic/Orthodox/Jewish & paganism all co-habiting but it has to be said that the Catholics were the worst dissenters causing riots, unrest & even murdering those with opposing religious views to their own....... “Churches & the world” sees us revisit the Americas & the impact of Christianity upon the indigenous population; inquisition rears its head as do the Jesuits & other orders, the council of Trent & finally the supernatural with a paragraph or two about witches where we learn that around 38,000 were executed between 1450 – 1715 (most before 1650)! The final chapter in part 5 carries us to “The waning of crusades” & immerses us directly into the Ottoman Empire & its impact across Europe on Christianity, we learn also about outside threats to the Ottomans from other regions, namely Iran & Morocco.
The Final part is called “Christian states in disarray” & by now i’m reading paragraphs which sound familiarly from prior chapters? Or are they? Or is it likely purely down to the layout of the book where we revisit overlapping subjects..... This part deals with the major states of the time & the impact they have on each other, mostly through conflict but first we start with “The business of states” which reveals the major players & the make-up of the nations of the period. Next chapter is entitled “States in confrontation” where we learn mostly about the Habsburg’s (Spanish & Austrian) warring with all n sundry across Europe, revolutions are covered in this chapter as well as the open suppression of Protestantism be it through trial & execution or exile. Denmark, Sweden & Bohemia are covered too although as usual in small comparison to the likes of France. “War at large” runs along the same theme but it widens the conflicts across the whole continent of Europe. We learn of states like Poland-Lithuania as they take on Sweden & I have to ask “Where did they evolve from?” “Did i miss summit from earlier?” “Aren’t they separate countries?” They are questions that I find myself asking a lot in the final few chapters as I will it all to a conclusion.........
Final rating – At the start I was quite enthused but come journeys end I’ve found that last part quite a grind & willing it all to end......... A final rating of three (rounded up from 2.75) I think, dead centre with equal measure of intrigue & real learning tempered by dreary endless names/dates with no real substance/ability to learn from leaving me bored stupid! A complete mixed bag in reality but a book i’d recommend as I believe everyone will get summit new from it or at least find interest in certain sections – I DID struggle with the religious aspect of the book ie they’re was a LOT of it during this period of European history (The reformation) but it was included in such depth (for obvious reason I appreciate) & for anyone wanting to know more about the subject it’s certainly a good place to start as it covers a lot of the elements / factions. Overall though, I think with the level of detail this book demonstrates, you will at first require background knowledge of the lie of the land before you start, so you can make semblance of it all. For me certain texts/topics I could follow readily (prior knowledge) whereas others I felt I was thrown in the deep end and I struggled to follow or understand what was going on – I was like, hang on, you jus jumped to the end part, where’s the background to all this?
A timeline at the back of the book would have been very useful which the first in the series had but the rest have foregone.....
As to my quest: to learn about the formation of Europe & its peoples..... I’m not too sure this one hit the spot fully as when it did cover the subject we went backwards (akin to book 2) by being assaulted by names/dates of people we would already have had to know about or at least the history/context thereof. I also found the format (jumping from one topic to another, always starting from the beginning) prevented learning about a developing Europe as a whole if talking in terms of countries/empires (i.e. The Austrian Empire under the Habsburgs). I also felt that some topics (that overlapped) were repeated in later chapters giving at times a kinda disjointed feel to the overall read & that the last part was a real chore to read.
Onwards I go.......
PS I Dont believe I’m going to get this series complete in a year as the next book weighs in at around 700 pages too.......
June 23, 2023
Christendom Destroyed covers the religious and political turmoil in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. This is a very broad overview of the time-period. Approximately half the book provides a broad survey of thematic topics such as peoples' socio-economic place in the world, the Church, religious observance (and dissent), fiscal matters, trade, taxes, living arrangements, the discovery of the Americas and global trade, the development of science and medicine, as well as the development of the printing press, correspondence, postal service and literacy. The remainder of the book has a more familiar (and messy) political-military structure that tends to jump around between the various regions in Europe. This section is particularly dense and concise (no long winded battle plans here!). The development and spread of the Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and the consequences thereof, gets much page space, and is clearly described. Maps and genealogical tables are provided where relevant. An interesting history book that provides a broad, dense overview of what was going on in Europe between 1517 and 1648 in a concise manner.
August 8, 2023
Penguin’s History of Europe is a multivolume account of European history aimed at a general audience. I have read a lot of history books over the years, but it occurred to me that while I have read textbooks on world/western history as well as works on narrow topics in European history and some general overviews of the Ancient World and China, I’ve never actually read a general overview of European history that covers the entire history of the continent from beginning to end. Such broad surveys have problems: they have to generalize and condense to work at all and they naturally skip over some events of great importance. But if you only look at specific aspects of European history you’ll never get a good sense for how that fits into the big picture. As such, books like these are of immense importance, and Penguin fills a much-needed gap in scholarship. Because outside of this series there really isn’t any that covers the complete history of this continent. This may seem tangential to this book, but I’m starting my review off with this fact because I’m reading through the series in order and my opinions of the books will depend both on how well they stand up as individual volumes as well as how they fare as part of the broader series.
Having finished half of this series now it is clear to me that the best volumes are those that have at their core a clear thesis. This thesis must be clear and provide an all-encompassing lens through which to view the broader patterns of the time. This seems to be intentional as they all (apart from the first) try to create such a thesis, whether it is that Europeanness was pushed backwards onto the ancient world, that Rome only slowly lost its place as an ideal to emulate, or that the Reformation marked the end of Christendom as an ideal and led to a splintering of society. Those are all good conclusions around which to build (even if the first one doesn’t work in practice) and give what will ultimately be a massive conglomeration of topics a place in a broader narrative. This book is no exception and the sudden collapse of any European consensus followed by a century of trying to reclaim it with ever decreasing hope is a strong tale to tell. This book marks the point at which change starts to hit Europe hard and keeps hitting it until nothing is left unchanged. It was an exciting, and deadly, time to live.
One big change in this book is that it declines to adopt a narrative approach. Unlike most books in the series, it opts to keep the political/religious narrative separate from more thematic topics. In this it reminds me of the New Oxford History of England more than anything else. I mostly thought it worked, although given this approach it really ought to have used more signposting. The narrative section comes at the end, and it is fairly obvious where things are going there, but the thematic chapters don’t really explain why they’re included. The first section of the book covers demographics, daily life, economics, and the nobility. What ties these together and has them grouped together under “From the ‘Silver Age’ to the ‘Iron Century’? And why does this precede the discussion of colonialism and scientific advances? Given the focus on splintering Christendom, why is the discussion of religion pushed so far back (almost halfway through)? Some guidance through this mass of information would be useful. Even a few paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter would help. The topics themselves are interesting, but a great book would make them all fit together.
The Reformation is one of those eras where I really ought to know more than I do. I suppose it’s because as an atheist I have little interest in religion or theology and that is such a vital part of the era. Plus the Tudors are super boring guys, I don’t know who you’re kidding. Give me the Stuarts any day. So I’m glad that this book does such a good job at getting into what made these cultures distinct. In addition to the surface level stuff there are a lot of general observations about the increasing reliance on nongovernmental contractors – people who perform government services without being part of the government. We’re a little early for absolute monarchs, but the ideas and practices were certainly floating around. In general, the book does a great job of laying out some sophisticated analyses in clear language.
Speaking of theology though, it was frustrating to realize that this is one of the least successful parts of the book. It covers religion a lot obviously, and we can follow the intellectual developments leading to schism, but as for what specifically the different sects believed I found myself unsure. Justification through faith alone made sense, although I’m not clear here on all the logical implications of it. But the Catholic response to this seem vague. What exactly did they disagree on in there? And what was covered by the Council of Trent? Calvinism is even worse: predestination is mentioned briefly, but then largely dismissed as mostly being the doctrine of Calvin’s successors, not Calvin himself. I think that chronological element is part of the issue: by splitting religious developments across multiple chapters and carefully avoiding anachronism we’re left without the general overview we need. There’s also a tendency to focus on outward results of religion (persecution, moral regulation, etc.) above its inner meaning. It doesn’t help that key terms like “confession” (it doesn’t just mean an admission of sin) are undefined. At times it feels more like a book aimed at filling in some gaps for existing students rather than introducing the topic. At times it can spend more time deconstructing myths that you may (or may not) already know than in building up a foundation of knowledge. I particularly felt this with the religious chapters. Is the lack of specificity in theology meant to emphasize his view that religious conflicts were just reflections of existing fissures? I don’t know. That’s a problem.
I enjoyed this book and found it an excellent guide (with some caveats) to the Reformation. The political and social analysis in particular was spot on. The religious analysis was subtle and likely correct, although it leaves out too much of the intellectual underpinning for it to really serve as a good introduction. It feels to me like this would be a great guide to the Reformation if paired with an introduction to Christian theology. I appreciate the desire to avoid anachronism by smushing theological views that only slowly developed together at the same time, but without some idea of where people were heading you just can’t understand what they believed. And it’s better for a complete introduction to include a bit of anachronism than correct mistaken views which people may not fully understand without actually replacing them with a clearer narrative.
November 9, 2017
A very long, detailed and, at times, long winding book. Greengrass starts with describing common life during the 16th and 17th centuries (living conditions, science/philosophy, discoveries in the New World, colonialism, communication and printing). After this he zooms in on the politico-religious developments of the 16th and 17th century. This choice is rather backward, since you need to know the broad story of the time described in order to be able to place individual experiences in perspective. Greengrass should have chosen to outline the political developments first and then zoom in on details (for example the importance of printing and the influence of colonies on the war campaigns).
Besides this rather clumsy choice, the book suffers from long summaries of facts. A general reader (which is the audience he aims at) is not capable of remembering thousands and thousands of names, situations and developments. (Part 3 in this series, on the High Middle Ages, is a much better attempt to offer the general reader a comprehensible overview of the times). After closing the book I remember the main themes and the broad outlines of the developments of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), which is basically a collection of different local conflicts: the Dutch recapture of Brabant and Limburg, the succesful Swedish war in Germany, the English Civil Wars, the Polish crisis, the rise of the French Bourbon kingdom and the fall of the Spanish Habsburg kingdom. The view Greengrass offers is one of royal opportunism: the royal sponsorships of perpetual war.
In the last chapter (a conclusion) Greengrass writes that a diversity of factors (the Reformation, political ambitions, economic collapse, disastrous climatic conditions and hunger and famine, technological advancements in war) contributed to the so-called European 'paroxysm'. Besides the multiplicity of causes, Greengrass claims that the Thirty Years War is a concept that was made up afterwards, in order to make sense of what happened. In reality it was a concoction of different local/national conflicts, each with its own dynamics. I can follow him in both claims and it is this point that makes the message of the book worthwile.
To conclude: this book is definitely worth reading if one wants a complete and detailed insight in the period (Reformation to Peace of Westhphalia). One gets detailed insights into the economic workings of the time, the developments of political structures, the dynamics of royal opportunism and the sufferings of the 'normal peasant'. It is a big investment though.
Besides this rather clumsy choice, the book suffers from long summaries of facts. A general reader (which is the audience he aims at) is not capable of remembering thousands and thousands of names, situations and developments. (Part 3 in this series, on the High Middle Ages, is a much better attempt to offer the general reader a comprehensible overview of the times). After closing the book I remember the main themes and the broad outlines of the developments of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), which is basically a collection of different local conflicts: the Dutch recapture of Brabant and Limburg, the succesful Swedish war in Germany, the English Civil Wars, the Polish crisis, the rise of the French Bourbon kingdom and the fall of the Spanish Habsburg kingdom. The view Greengrass offers is one of royal opportunism: the royal sponsorships of perpetual war.
In the last chapter (a conclusion) Greengrass writes that a diversity of factors (the Reformation, political ambitions, economic collapse, disastrous climatic conditions and hunger and famine, technological advancements in war) contributed to the so-called European 'paroxysm'. Besides the multiplicity of causes, Greengrass claims that the Thirty Years War is a concept that was made up afterwards, in order to make sense of what happened. In reality it was a concoction of different local/national conflicts, each with its own dynamics. I can follow him in both claims and it is this point that makes the message of the book worthwile.
To conclude: this book is definitely worth reading if one wants a complete and detailed insight in the period (Reformation to Peace of Westhphalia). One gets detailed insights into the economic workings of the time, the developments of political structures, the dynamics of royal opportunism and the sufferings of the 'normal peasant'. It is a big investment though.
March 25, 2023
La quinta edición de este viaje por la historia de Europa de la serie “The Penguin History of Europe” de la editorial Penguin, nos lleva por los convulsos siglos XVI y XVII de la mano del historiador Mark Greengrass, profesor emérito de Historia Moderna de la Universidad de Sheffield y experto en la historia de la reforma protestante. "La Destrucción de la Cristiandad - Europa 1517 - 1648" es un periplo por dos de los siglos más turbulentos y sangrientos de la historia europea, donde en apenas unas décadas, los pilares que sostuvieron a Europa durante la Edad Media se desmoronaron, afectando no sólo al orden político sino también a la cultura, la ciencia, la economía, la forma de hacer la guerra, el equilibrio de poderes y especialmente, la religión. Mientras el Sacro Imperio Romano y el Papado en Roma -otrora los grandes protagonistas- agonizaban y perdían poder e influencia; nuevos jugadores se erigían como piezas clave del tablero: España, Holanda, Suecia y la iglesia protestante.
La tesis central de este libro es expuesta por Greengrass desde el primer capítulo: La demolición de la vieja noción de "Cristiandad" y su sustitución por la de "Europa" durante el Siglo XVI como unificador de un continente diverso. Si después de la caída del Imperio Romano, fue la noción de "Cristianismo" la que aglutinó a las gentes de Europa; el advenimiento de la Edad Moderna con el descubrimiento de América, los avances de la ciencia y la filosofía, el uso sistemático de armas de fuego en las guerras y la Reforma, terminaron destruyendo ese concepto unificador para dar paso al de "Europa" como concepto geográfico en una relación de distancia con otras partes del mundo recién "descubierto" y que a su vez aglutinaba a un montón de entidades políticas organizadas (todavía no constituidas como Estados); que se dedicaron a combatir entre ellas por las siguientes décadas. Eventos como la Contrarreforma, la Guerra de los Treinta Años o la consolidación definitiva de la Casa de Habsburgo son episodios que también se narran en este libro.
Como puntos negativos de este texto, "La Destrucción de la Cristiandad - Europa 1517 - 1648" no está estructurada de manera cronológica sino organizada por temas en aras de reforzar la tesis del autor. Por lo tanto no es libro apropiado para acercarse por primera vez a los eventos de los dos Siglos que abarca, es más, muchos acontecimientos requieren de conocimiento previo del lector - que Greengrass supone que ya se posee. Tampoco me parece que la forma en la que el autor aborda los eventos históricos sea la más apropiada para seguir el hilo cronológico de los mismos, pues en un capítulo te puede estar hablando de las rencillas de Carlos I de España con Francisco I de Francia; para luego dar un salto temporo-espacial a las guerras sueco-germanas de Gustavo II Adolfo de Suecia sin ningún orden o contexto. Ni hablar de la maraña dinástica de estos siglos, que no sólo no se explica sino que tampoco se cuenta con algún árbol cronológico que nos permita entender por qué casi todos los monarcas de aquellos años estaban emparentados entre sí.
El relato de la Guerra de los Treinta Años es un desastre (en cualquiera de sus tres fases), y salvo una explicación de sus causas son pocas las líneas dedicadas a los enfrentamientos bélicos y/o sus consecuencias; por lo que resulta mucho mejor acudir a otros libros para entender la importancia de esta serie de conflictos en la configuración europea del Siglo XVIII (se recomienda especialmente La Guerra de los Treinta Años. Una tragedia europea (I) 1618-1630 dePeter H. Wilson si se busca un libro dedicado a este conflicto).
En mi humilde opinión, no resulta de lo más destacable de “The Penguin History of Europe” y funciona muy bien como libro de estudio sobre la Reforma protestante y el papel del cristianismo en la naciente Edad Moderna. Sin embargo, como texto de instrucción cronológica no resulta tan destacable y mucho menos si se pretende buscar referencias sobre conflictos bélicos o la Guerra de los Treinta Años.
La tesis central de este libro es expuesta por Greengrass desde el primer capítulo: La demolición de la vieja noción de "Cristiandad" y su sustitución por la de "Europa" durante el Siglo XVI como unificador de un continente diverso. Si después de la caída del Imperio Romano, fue la noción de "Cristianismo" la que aglutinó a las gentes de Europa; el advenimiento de la Edad Moderna con el descubrimiento de América, los avances de la ciencia y la filosofía, el uso sistemático de armas de fuego en las guerras y la Reforma, terminaron destruyendo ese concepto unificador para dar paso al de "Europa" como concepto geográfico en una relación de distancia con otras partes del mundo recién "descubierto" y que a su vez aglutinaba a un montón de entidades políticas organizadas (todavía no constituidas como Estados); que se dedicaron a combatir entre ellas por las siguientes décadas. Eventos como la Contrarreforma, la Guerra de los Treinta Años o la consolidación definitiva de la Casa de Habsburgo son episodios que también se narran en este libro.
Como puntos negativos de este texto, "La Destrucción de la Cristiandad - Europa 1517 - 1648" no está estructurada de manera cronológica sino organizada por temas en aras de reforzar la tesis del autor. Por lo tanto no es libro apropiado para acercarse por primera vez a los eventos de los dos Siglos que abarca, es más, muchos acontecimientos requieren de conocimiento previo del lector - que Greengrass supone que ya se posee. Tampoco me parece que la forma en la que el autor aborda los eventos históricos sea la más apropiada para seguir el hilo cronológico de los mismos, pues en un capítulo te puede estar hablando de las rencillas de Carlos I de España con Francisco I de Francia; para luego dar un salto temporo-espacial a las guerras sueco-germanas de Gustavo II Adolfo de Suecia sin ningún orden o contexto. Ni hablar de la maraña dinástica de estos siglos, que no sólo no se explica sino que tampoco se cuenta con algún árbol cronológico que nos permita entender por qué casi todos los monarcas de aquellos años estaban emparentados entre sí.
El relato de la Guerra de los Treinta Años es un desastre (en cualquiera de sus tres fases), y salvo una explicación de sus causas son pocas las líneas dedicadas a los enfrentamientos bélicos y/o sus consecuencias; por lo que resulta mucho mejor acudir a otros libros para entender la importancia de esta serie de conflictos en la configuración europea del Siglo XVIII (se recomienda especialmente La Guerra de los Treinta Años. Una tragedia europea (I) 1618-1630 dePeter H. Wilson si se busca un libro dedicado a este conflicto).
En mi humilde opinión, no resulta de lo más destacable de “The Penguin History of Europe” y funciona muy bien como libro de estudio sobre la Reforma protestante y el papel del cristianismo en la naciente Edad Moderna. Sin embargo, como texto de instrucción cronológica no resulta tan destacable y mucho menos si se pretende buscar referencias sobre conflictos bélicos o la Guerra de los Treinta Años.
October 29, 2015
This volume organizes a very broad and complex topic, the history of a continent through 130 years, around a relatively simple concept: that at the beginning of the period, there was Christendom, and at the end, Europe. Unfortunately, I don't think the author does an adequate job of demonstrating the validity of the concept of Christendom, or more specifically, documenting that it was a meaningful term throughout the area in question, and perceived across that geographic diversity in consistent ways.
I really felt the lack of historiographical discussion: how valid are generalizations, what are the sources, and so on. Within a paragraph, there can be wild swings across the continent. There are a lot of broad, unqualified generalizations. But the lack of a historiographical discussion, combined with the author's evidently casual attitude toward language left me distrustful of his sweeping statements.
The casual attitude toward language (one blurb calls it "engagingly written") left me in some instances with the sense that one has in conversation, where you know what was meant, even though it wasn't said correctly. One might suggest the author do some study in the functioning of antecedents for pronouns.
In conversation, even in a lecture, this would pass unremarked, but print demands a higher standard. Since I tend to believe that clear writing is linked to clear thought, the language here leads me to question the depth of analysis that underpins the generalizations upon which the book so much relies.
Foreign language words are sometimes glossed, sometimes not, and sometimes seemingly translitterated (as when he writes that princes "had the 'office' of enforcing conformity." He must mean the sense of the Latin officium, (i.e., duty or obligation) but the Anglophone reader gets no help. Similarly, referring to Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola as "the Martin Luther of sixteenth-century philosophy" may be 'engaging' to some, but it strikes me as facile and unhelpful.
This is the third volume in this series that I have read, and it is by far the weakest. It seems aimed at the casual reader, who will take its statements on faith. But I wonder how many casual readers there are for a history of this period.
I really felt the lack of historiographical discussion: how valid are generalizations, what are the sources, and so on. Within a paragraph, there can be wild swings across the continent. There are a lot of broad, unqualified generalizations. But the lack of a historiographical discussion, combined with the author's evidently casual attitude toward language left me distrustful of his sweeping statements.
The casual attitude toward language (one blurb calls it "engagingly written") left me in some instances with the sense that one has in conversation, where you know what was meant, even though it wasn't said correctly. One might suggest the author do some study in the functioning of antecedents for pronouns.
In conversation, even in a lecture, this would pass unremarked, but print demands a higher standard. Since I tend to believe that clear writing is linked to clear thought, the language here leads me to question the depth of analysis that underpins the generalizations upon which the book so much relies.
Foreign language words are sometimes glossed, sometimes not, and sometimes seemingly translitterated (as when he writes that princes "had the 'office' of enforcing conformity." He must mean the sense of the Latin officium, (i.e., duty or obligation) but the Anglophone reader gets no help. Similarly, referring to Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola as "the Martin Luther of sixteenth-century philosophy" may be 'engaging' to some, but it strikes me as facile and unhelpful.
This is the third volume in this series that I have read, and it is by far the weakest. It seems aimed at the casual reader, who will take its statements on faith. But I wonder how many casual readers there are for a history of this period.
Want to read
August 8, 2014FROM THE ECONOMIST (Aug 2, 2014) ... Mr Greengrass pays exhaustive attention to every detail in the post-Luther battles over religious doctrine, which he rightly sees as the underlying cause of most of its wars, culminating in both the Thirty Years War and the English civil war.
This supports my contention that religions have caused most of the hatred, war and death that humankind has ever known.
This supports my contention that religions have caused most of the hatred, war and death that humankind has ever known.
February 15, 2015
I have to say immediately that this will be brief and from a layman's perspective, because my knowledge of history is limited to my sporadic consumption of dense history books such as this one. That being said, it is wonderfully written, concise and descriptive; it maintains an academic tone while simultaneously being engaging. There are sections of text which provide a bit too much information and could be shortened somehow, since the majority of readers are themselves not historians and do not require the extent of evidence and argument that is given - in places the book reads slightly like a thesis paper, though that is indeed a difficult balance to maintain, I know - but overall, it is an engaging and pleasant read. I received this book through First Reads, and am extremely glad I got to read it.
May 18, 2022
Greengrass describes the shift from Christendom (a community of believers) to Europe (a territory of diverse churches and states).
October 22, 2017
This is a whirlwind tour of a very tumultuous period of Europe. A period spanning 130 years that started with one of the most famous schisms in Christianity, a period of radical changes in climate, effecting lives of kings and peasants alike.
It's not easy to describe so many important events with so many far reaching geographical and temporal effects, while keeping the narrative running smoothly. I have to admit that I found many parts of the book very 'jumpy': jumping from one subject to another, quickly changing themes, sometimes drowning the reader in so many details, names and places only in a few paragraphs. As if this was not enough, in some parts the author hints at the importance of some changes in climate, and then suddenly jumping to another topic without elaborating what he meant regarding climate and geography.
During some sections, I felt like drinking from a firehose, feeling all the weight of so much history pouring on my mind. Not having a very solid foundation in that part of European history, I found myself taking detours, chasing many historical figures and more details about the events in other resources. What made my inquiries more difficult than necessary was the lack of references and footnotes: you read something that really draws your attention, only to realize that its sources is not references. The author, a professional historian, apologizes for that at the end of the book, saying that he had to omit references because this book was series was intended as popular introductions, and not academical texts. I can understand the concerns of its editor and publisher, but still, I'd be happier if there were detailed references to the sources.
Another missing aspect was the economical background: even though the author describes how war efforts were directly affected by the financial situations of kingdoms and dynasties, I couldn't find how the economy of other facets of life in that period affected the shaping of societies.
Nevertheless, I can recommend this book to readers curious about the 16th and 17th centuries of European history. Starting with how the roots of current Europe were shaped by the great differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, it describes many aspects of wars, revolutions and tensions between dynasties, kingdoms and the empire. It will not be an easy read, and you'll have to expand your research to many more different sources, but you'll have a general overview of life in 1500s and the first half of 1600s. This, in turn, will help you better understand some of the political discussions taking place in 2010s.
It's not easy to describe so many important events with so many far reaching geographical and temporal effects, while keeping the narrative running smoothly. I have to admit that I found many parts of the book very 'jumpy': jumping from one subject to another, quickly changing themes, sometimes drowning the reader in so many details, names and places only in a few paragraphs. As if this was not enough, in some parts the author hints at the importance of some changes in climate, and then suddenly jumping to another topic without elaborating what he meant regarding climate and geography.
During some sections, I felt like drinking from a firehose, feeling all the weight of so much history pouring on my mind. Not having a very solid foundation in that part of European history, I found myself taking detours, chasing many historical figures and more details about the events in other resources. What made my inquiries more difficult than necessary was the lack of references and footnotes: you read something that really draws your attention, only to realize that its sources is not references. The author, a professional historian, apologizes for that at the end of the book, saying that he had to omit references because this book was series was intended as popular introductions, and not academical texts. I can understand the concerns of its editor and publisher, but still, I'd be happier if there were detailed references to the sources.
Another missing aspect was the economical background: even though the author describes how war efforts were directly affected by the financial situations of kingdoms and dynasties, I couldn't find how the economy of other facets of life in that period affected the shaping of societies.
Nevertheless, I can recommend this book to readers curious about the 16th and 17th centuries of European history. Starting with how the roots of current Europe were shaped by the great differences between Protestantism and Catholicism, it describes many aspects of wars, revolutions and tensions between dynasties, kingdoms and the empire. It will not be an easy read, and you'll have to expand your research to many more different sources, but you'll have a general overview of life in 1500s and the first half of 1600s. This, in turn, will help you better understand some of the political discussions taking place in 2010s.
February 8, 2016
An amazing historical period of epic proportions, about which I previously knew little. This book fills in that gap; however, I still don't understand it well. It is too vast a stage with a cast of thousands, where I have trouble seeing the forest because of the many trees. Trying to read it casually was difficult because of the unbelievable complexity of the times - hundreds of territories, duchies, commonwealths and other political entities, aside from the French and Spanish kingdoms, all of which play a role at some time. Then there are the Habsurg lineages where I could not easily keep track of the many Fredericks and Maximilians. The author is obviously a master historian, but this one volume should have been broken down into at least three volumes. I learned a lot and this will help in future readings about this time, so I give it four stars for coverage of events; but the somewhat elegant writing style and overabundance of details drag down the final score to three stars.
As a final note, looking at the reviews of other books dealing with this period, such as C.V. Wedgewood's "The Thirty Year's War", I see that most of them receive the same criticism. Perhaps it is just the most complex period of history which makes it so difficullt to easily explain.
As a final note, looking at the reviews of other books dealing with this period, such as C.V. Wedgewood's "The Thirty Year's War", I see that most of them receive the same criticism. Perhaps it is just the most complex period of history which makes it so difficullt to easily explain.
November 30, 2015
Excellent history. Well written and engaging. I wanted to find a good history read about this period and this book is superb. It is full of information and tidbits but very well written and shows all the aspects of the struggle from 1517-1648. Anyone interested in this period of transition from "Christendom" to "Europe" will want to read this book. Even casual history fans would enjoy the way the book is written.
August 28, 2019
Terribly written book, full of statistics and short of analysis. Did anyone notice the repeated statements on the earth cooling during that period? Early frosts and short, wet summers that ended up damaging crops? The earth has been heating and cooling for millennia without the attendant hysteria.
Read
March 30, 2024Summary: The years between 1517 and 1648 represented an unprecedented time in European history in which common European culture radically shifted, marking a transition from the catholicity and universality of the church of Rome (Christendom), to the various competing nation-states with their own religious, economic, and political goals. Whether the unity of the middle ages really existed or not was, for the people of this time period, irrelevant; what mattered was that people believed that it had, that Christian princes and nations had interests in common and should be doctrinally united to defend Christianity against the incursions of its enemies (the Turks). Unfortunately for those attempting to unify Europe under a universal catholic church, the religious (Protestantism) and political (Dutch revolt, English Civil War, Franco-Spanish competition, Thirty Years War) combined in such a way as to make a such a unity impossible. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 was the culmination of these efforts, but instead of any one party succeeding, all the parties ended up exhausted and willing to cut a deal that would permit diversity instead of unity, ushering in a new age for Europe as a political entity, rather than Europe as a spiritual entity.
The other major theme of this work is one of reform; who was responsible for reforming the church, and what elements of it should be reformed? The Reformation was a challenge not just to the Catholic church as it stood, but to the way legitimate authority was to be perceived at all. The Reformers presented the Catholic church as an obstacle to the true faith with their sacraments and abuse of authority, preferring an approach modeled the supposedly simple and pious early church. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholics, understanding that their legitimacy was being threatened by Protestant theologians and princes alike, reformed their church practices and policies, all while distinguishing themselves from and cracking down on Protestantism. The result? Two Europes; one where the Protestant reformation was successful (Northern Europe) and one where the counter-reformation was successful (Central and Souther Europe).
Thoughts: I think this book was excellent and entertaining overview of the whole era; a book of this scope will necessarily have to leave out a lot, but the author seemed to do this without sacrificing important details. The treatment on the actual theological issues of the reformation is rather light, but this is to be expected from a historical mostly concerned over secular matters.
The other major theme of this work is one of reform; who was responsible for reforming the church, and what elements of it should be reformed? The Reformation was a challenge not just to the Catholic church as it stood, but to the way legitimate authority was to be perceived at all. The Reformers presented the Catholic church as an obstacle to the true faith with their sacraments and abuse of authority, preferring an approach modeled the supposedly simple and pious early church. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholics, understanding that their legitimacy was being threatened by Protestant theologians and princes alike, reformed their church practices and policies, all while distinguishing themselves from and cracking down on Protestantism. The result? Two Europes; one where the Protestant reformation was successful (Northern Europe) and one where the counter-reformation was successful (Central and Souther Europe).
Thoughts: I think this book was excellent and entertaining overview of the whole era; a book of this scope will necessarily have to leave out a lot, but the author seemed to do this without sacrificing important details. The treatment on the actual theological issues of the reformation is rather light, but this is to be expected from a historical mostly concerned over secular matters.
May 14, 2021
This book is long and, to be fair, it needs to be in order to cover such an eventful period of history. Starting at the outset of the Protestant Reformation and concluding at the end of the Thirty Years' War, this book is packed with information about daily life, economic history, complex politics, scientific advancements, and, of course, the overarching theme of religion. In the introduction, the author put forward the idea that the medieval concept of Christendom was eventual replaced in this era with that of Europe and much of this book ties back to that thesis. It's a good argument, particularly for an era which saw so much religious change and conflict associated with that change, and overall I tended to concur. I also appreciated the efforts to detail political structures and events in eastern Europe, which often are neglected in other histories of this period. Overall, this book was definitely worth the effort and it's very much worthwhile for those interested in this period of European history.
January 15, 2021
Almost as good as Wilson’s on the 30 year war, this one covers most of the reformation and some of the counter reformation from Europe. The book slowed down a little with a lot of little details and personalities, but well worth it.
April 4, 2023
Another excellent instalment in the Penguin History of Europe. Does a great job of engaging on a period (the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) that has never really grabbed me and - the strength of the series as a whole - tying together events taking place across the breadth of the continent, including the often-neglected east.
August 25, 2019
A horrible book to read with a lost anchor. I feel bad for the papers used for such a badly written book.
July 25, 2024
This book lays out a lot of facts, but fails to connect them well or focus on the pertinent ones. It descends rapidly in overly verbose paragraphs of poorly devised history. The author seems to be more concerned with using arcane Latin loanwords than clear points or interesting synthesis. Maybe a better editor could have tightened this somehow, but given the large number of errors in dates, spelling and just sentences that go nowhere, I have a feeling the editors just gave up.
Like the previous volumes, it tries to use a central thesis to explain a very diverse, broad and intense period of history for a region marked by difference more than similarity. Here it's the notion that Christendom as a universalist concept broke down, and this gave us both good (revolutionary science, rationalism, religious plurality) and bad (colonialism, racism, serfdom, intolerance). The author is incapable of doing anything more than tacking on the point, leaving analyses that might have been interesting in the hands of a better scholar (eg. The comparison of plantation slavery and Russian serfdom) no more than ephemeral postulates that lack a solid grounding.
I don't know who this is for. Damningly, both the length and choice of words means it can't be used as an introductory textbook (like Europe in the high middle ages does manage to do). Even more damningly, the scholarship is weak to the point of being incoherent. To the author, history seems almost to be a loose collection of facts. He uses paragraphs of over erudite language to describe what other authors in the series mercifully use a simple table for (think population, industry, trade, etc. etc.) Weirdly, the historical quotations from common folk often interspersed throughout this series are largely absent
The one place where the almost mystical use of language shines is the author's treatment of theological disputes, especially french Calvinism, which seems to be his chief area of interest
Summarising:
- inheritance of Rome was deep like excellent literature, with everything coming together to build a greater whole.
- Europe in the high middle ages was shallow like a kiddy pool - great to learn how to swim
- this is deep like the Mariana trough: full of things to explore but mostly just dark and crushing.
Avoid
Like the previous volumes, it tries to use a central thesis to explain a very diverse, broad and intense period of history for a region marked by difference more than similarity. Here it's the notion that Christendom as a universalist concept broke down, and this gave us both good (revolutionary science, rationalism, religious plurality) and bad (colonialism, racism, serfdom, intolerance). The author is incapable of doing anything more than tacking on the point, leaving analyses that might have been interesting in the hands of a better scholar (eg. The comparison of plantation slavery and Russian serfdom) no more than ephemeral postulates that lack a solid grounding.
I don't know who this is for. Damningly, both the length and choice of words means it can't be used as an introductory textbook (like Europe in the high middle ages does manage to do). Even more damningly, the scholarship is weak to the point of being incoherent. To the author, history seems almost to be a loose collection of facts. He uses paragraphs of over erudite language to describe what other authors in the series mercifully use a simple table for (think population, industry, trade, etc. etc.) Weirdly, the historical quotations from common folk often interspersed throughout this series are largely absent
The one place where the almost mystical use of language shines is the author's treatment of theological disputes, especially french Calvinism, which seems to be his chief area of interest
Summarising:
- inheritance of Rome was deep like excellent literature, with everything coming together to build a greater whole.
- Europe in the high middle ages was shallow like a kiddy pool - great to learn how to swim
- this is deep like the Mariana trough: full of things to explore but mostly just dark and crushing.
Avoid
September 11, 2016
This is a massive book, not simply in size but in scope and ambition. Ostensibly a book covering the religious cataclysm that engulfed Europe between Luther's 95 theses and the peace of Westphalia, the first 250 pages barely touch religion at all as Greengrass takes us on a whirlwind tour of the intellectual and cultural changes that Europe underwent in this period as post-Renaissance Christendom morphed into Enlightenment Europe. His thesis is that the cultural construct of Christendom gave way to the more secular understanding of Europe as first the Reformation destroyed forever the consensus of faith (one admittedly enforced at times through considerable violence) and then the combination of global exploration and scientific endeavour raised new challenges to traditional viewpoints.
The book is concentrated - it could have been many times this length (Elton's volume in the Cambridge Modern History covered only the years 1520-59 and is almost as long) - and at times it is as though we see Europe's history as a magic lantern of flickering images. Yet within this are some lovely nuggets (Little Miss Tuffet was apparently the daughter of a renowned entomologist) as well as longer portraits of key figures and events. Those (surely everyone) confused by the goings on in the Thirty Years War are unlikely to feel any more enlightened; the Catholic "counter-Reformation" and the Council of Trent is, to my mind, a little too cursorily dealt with. For those wanting to read a more detailed history of the European Reformation then Diarmaid MacCulloch is a more reliable guide. Even so, this book is fast-paced, readable and comprehensive and therefore does exactly what a general history should.
The book is concentrated - it could have been many times this length (Elton's volume in the Cambridge Modern History covered only the years 1520-59 and is almost as long) - and at times it is as though we see Europe's history as a magic lantern of flickering images. Yet within this are some lovely nuggets (Little Miss Tuffet was apparently the daughter of a renowned entomologist) as well as longer portraits of key figures and events. Those (surely everyone) confused by the goings on in the Thirty Years War are unlikely to feel any more enlightened; the Catholic "counter-Reformation" and the Council of Trent is, to my mind, a little too cursorily dealt with. For those wanting to read a more detailed history of the European Reformation then Diarmaid MacCulloch is a more reliable guide. Even so, this book is fast-paced, readable and comprehensive and therefore does exactly what a general history should.
February 12, 2015
I picked up this book because I'm somewhat weak on this period of European history. The book is very long, but fortunately it can be read in parts. The first 250 pages are an engaging and useful study of the period itself--an examination of commerce, national interests, population, etc., all done with excellent perspective. The next 300 pages focus, appropriately, on the cataclysmic religious upheaval and conflicts of the time. The final 150 pages or so turn back from a religious focus to military and geopolitical history. This is all to say that one doesn't need to read the whole book to benefit from it. For those interested in a detailed analysis of the shifting currents of religion, I'm sure the middle section is hugely informative. The historical parts were of more interest to me, but both are well done.
May 31, 2019
If you are one day sitting at home and suddenly think to yourself: 'Gee, I sure would like to know more about the history of Europe during the 16th and part of the 17th century with a focus on The Reformation and the Thirty Years War', then this is definitely the book for you.
no
December 2, 2023Christendom Destroyed : Europe 1517-1648, Mark Greengrass, 2014, 722 pages, Dewey 940.23, ISBN 9780670024568.
By 1570, Europe from Geneva north was largely Protestant, except France, Bavaria, Bohemia, and Belgium. Italy and Spain were fully Catholic. pp. xvi-xvii
By 1570, Europe from Geneva north was largely Protestant, except France, Bavaria, Bohemia, and Belgium. Italy and Spain were fully Catholic. pp. xvi-xvii
October 18, 2015
Its dense. A history of the period, which requires knowing a fair amount of the history. Positively crammed with information, unfortunately to the point that it's quite overwhelming
July 7, 2020
A long, fire hose of a narrative that never really hooked me.
July 22, 2025
UK academic Mark Greengrass's 2014 history of the transformation of Europe during the Protestant Reformation is a comprehensive account of the rise of early modernism and the decline of the overarching power of medieval Roman Catholicism.
The book's main idea is in the title: 'Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648.' Greengrass's contention is that the idea of modern Europe as a diverse, assertive and outward looking political and cultural entity emerged from the shattering of a unitary Latin Christendom by the Protestant Reformation. What had been a relatively coherent community of single religious belief morphed into a more individualistic collection of contrary and competing beliefs underpinning a globally expansionist culture energized by highly competitive nation states.
The dates are significant: in 1517 the Roman Church began selling indulgences to fund the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Religious salvation could be bought. Martin Luther's revolutionary Ninety-five Theses began the rebuttal of this commercialization, and sparked the separatist movements which transformed much religious practice in Europe from centrally mandated control to individual self determination based on private reading of the scriptures.
The resulting wars between Catholic tradition and Protestant reformation were fought most spectacularly in the exceptionally brutal Thirty Years War in the then Holy Roman Empire, now mainly modern Germany, which ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which included agreement to more independent political sovereignty. Europe thereafter was a highly competitive melange of Catholic states (Spain, France, Italy) and various Protestant entities in Northern Europe, the German provinces, and the British Isles.
A religious dispute that began in 1517 had evolved into a movement that included the temporary abolition of the monarchy in England, with the deposition and execution of King Charles 1 in 1649.
The relative political power of Roman Catholicism is bracketed by the rise and fall of its dominance of Europe. It can be said to begin substantively when the Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in 800, and ended in the early years of the Reformation in 1530 when Charles V was the last emperor to be so crowned. In between, in the 11th century, the papacy won significant control when the so-called Investiture controversy - the right to control church appointments - was settled in Rome’s favour, ending secular control of these matters.
Greengrass provides 680 pages of detailed history describing the evolution of the remarkable transformation from medievalism to modernity. The causes and effects are varied, voluminous, and challenging, and nothing seems omitted. The philosophical, political, social, and technological influences that shaped the historic changes are recounted meticulously.
Europe's remarkable remaking of the world can be seen to begin in this volatile and revolutionary period. Whether the Protestant Reformation was the primary mover, or whether it was symptomatic of more fundamental modernising forces is moot. Certainly, the increasing prominence of individualism, the more substantial separation of Church and State, and the subsequent rise of science and industrialization were unique to Europe, and determined the state of our modern world.
Greengrass does not buy into the broader debate about cultural relativity and determinism. Others, such as historian Patricia Crone in her 1990s' essay 'The Oddity of Europe', examine the factors that differentiated the West from other civilizations and cultures. That is a separate discussion.
Readers looking for a detailed and illuminating history of Europe's remarkable 16th century transformation are well served by 'Christendom Destroyed'. The English reader will be especially pleased to have a history that covers Europe equitably and comprehensively, rather than inclining towards the more usual Anglo perspective.
The book's main idea is in the title: 'Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648.' Greengrass's contention is that the idea of modern Europe as a diverse, assertive and outward looking political and cultural entity emerged from the shattering of a unitary Latin Christendom by the Protestant Reformation. What had been a relatively coherent community of single religious belief morphed into a more individualistic collection of contrary and competing beliefs underpinning a globally expansionist culture energized by highly competitive nation states.
The dates are significant: in 1517 the Roman Church began selling indulgences to fund the rebuilding of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Religious salvation could be bought. Martin Luther's revolutionary Ninety-five Theses began the rebuttal of this commercialization, and sparked the separatist movements which transformed much religious practice in Europe from centrally mandated control to individual self determination based on private reading of the scriptures.
The resulting wars between Catholic tradition and Protestant reformation were fought most spectacularly in the exceptionally brutal Thirty Years War in the then Holy Roman Empire, now mainly modern Germany, which ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which included agreement to more independent political sovereignty. Europe thereafter was a highly competitive melange of Catholic states (Spain, France, Italy) and various Protestant entities in Northern Europe, the German provinces, and the British Isles.
A religious dispute that began in 1517 had evolved into a movement that included the temporary abolition of the monarchy in England, with the deposition and execution of King Charles 1 in 1649.
The relative political power of Roman Catholicism is bracketed by the rise and fall of its dominance of Europe. It can be said to begin substantively when the Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in 800, and ended in the early years of the Reformation in 1530 when Charles V was the last emperor to be so crowned. In between, in the 11th century, the papacy won significant control when the so-called Investiture controversy - the right to control church appointments - was settled in Rome’s favour, ending secular control of these matters.
Greengrass provides 680 pages of detailed history describing the evolution of the remarkable transformation from medievalism to modernity. The causes and effects are varied, voluminous, and challenging, and nothing seems omitted. The philosophical, political, social, and technological influences that shaped the historic changes are recounted meticulously.
Europe's remarkable remaking of the world can be seen to begin in this volatile and revolutionary period. Whether the Protestant Reformation was the primary mover, or whether it was symptomatic of more fundamental modernising forces is moot. Certainly, the increasing prominence of individualism, the more substantial separation of Church and State, and the subsequent rise of science and industrialization were unique to Europe, and determined the state of our modern world.
Greengrass does not buy into the broader debate about cultural relativity and determinism. Others, such as historian Patricia Crone in her 1990s' essay 'The Oddity of Europe', examine the factors that differentiated the West from other civilizations and cultures. That is a separate discussion.
Readers looking for a detailed and illuminating history of Europe's remarkable 16th century transformation are well served by 'Christendom Destroyed'. The English reader will be especially pleased to have a history that covers Europe equitably and comprehensively, rather than inclining towards the more usual Anglo perspective.
January 6, 2021
The 16th and 17th century was when Europe stopped seeing itself as Christendom, bound by religion and faith, and began to see itself as geographic identity. From peasants to princes, no one was untouched by the spiritual and intellectual upheaval of this era. Martin Luther's challenge to church authority forced Christians to examine their beliefs in ways that shook the foundations of their religion. The subsequent divisions, fed by dynastic rivalries and military changes, fundamentally altered the relations between ruler and ruled. Geographical and scientific discoveries challenged the unity of Christendom as a belief-community. It was reflected in the mirror of America, and refracted by the eclipse of Crusade in ambiguous relationships with the Ottomans and Orthodox Christianity.
Why I started this book: I'm working my way thru Penguin's History of Europe series and this one, was an era that I knew little about.
Why I finished it: I feel even more confused. Greengrass jumped right in without giving an overview of the time period, and that left me as a beginning historian floundering. His chapters followed subject matter and it felt like a lot of overlap. (That may just be my confusion too.). I will have to find another book or try this in print format.
I did like that Greengrass stressed that everyone living thru this century of turmoil thought that it was the end of the world... Having just lived thru a year of something similar, I had a lot of sympathy for them.
Why I started this book: I'm working my way thru Penguin's History of Europe series and this one, was an era that I knew little about.
Why I finished it: I feel even more confused. Greengrass jumped right in without giving an overview of the time period, and that left me as a beginning historian floundering. His chapters followed subject matter and it felt like a lot of overlap. (That may just be my confusion too.). I will have to find another book or try this in print format.
I did like that Greengrass stressed that everyone living thru this century of turmoil thought that it was the end of the world... Having just lived thru a year of something similar, I had a lot of sympathy for them.
January 3, 2022
It took me a month and a half to get through this, but it is one of my favorite books now after finishing it.
If you want to know how towns saw themselves, conflicts and coexistence of Protestants, Catholics, and Calvinists, the role of the nobility, guilds, civil war, it’s all here. An amazing breadth in its scope that is great at explaining why an issue is important, how people saw it, how it affected them, and then transition to another topic.
This is not a narrative chronicle, so it jumps around for what king you’re talking about, and sometimes hard to mentally map the time period this event is happening with this other event, unless the author specifically relates the two. I had a decent knowledge of the period from reading 20 years ago, and love the time period, but for someone who doesn’t broadly already know about the time period through the 30 Years War, I think this is not a good introduction. It is however a great book to go from being familiar with the period to starting to understand it.
If you want to know how towns saw themselves, conflicts and coexistence of Protestants, Catholics, and Calvinists, the role of the nobility, guilds, civil war, it’s all here. An amazing breadth in its scope that is great at explaining why an issue is important, how people saw it, how it affected them, and then transition to another topic.
This is not a narrative chronicle, so it jumps around for what king you’re talking about, and sometimes hard to mentally map the time period this event is happening with this other event, unless the author specifically relates the two. I had a decent knowledge of the period from reading 20 years ago, and love the time period, but for someone who doesn’t broadly already know about the time period through the 30 Years War, I think this is not a good introduction. It is however a great book to go from being familiar with the period to starting to understand it.
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