The Seventeenth Century: Europe 1598-1715 (Short Oxford History of Europe) [Paperback]

Joseph Bergin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 18, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0198731671 | ISBN-13: 978-0198731672

The complete Short Oxford History of Europe provides a concise, readable, and authoritative point of entry for the history of Europe from the Ancient Greeks to the present day in eleven volumes. In each chapter a leading expert offers focused and penetrating insights into the major themes and influences of the period.
Lying between the two great "peaks" of European history, the Reformation and the Enlightenment in the centuries before and after, the seventeenth century seems not to have a popular identity itself. And yet, as Professor Bergin points on in the Introduction, it is the very proliferation of major events, crises and processes throughout Eruope that has made this transitional age so difficult to label.
In this book, the seventeenth century is fully explored by Professor Bergin and six major authors as they address, in turn, economy, society, politics, war, international relations, science, thought and culture ('The Age of Curiosity'), and Europe in the wider world. In a set of chapters covering and contrasting the European experience across the century, both the reader and the student are offered a rich, lively, and provocative introduction to the period, and a superbly authoritative context for more detailed work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is an excellent collection, providing an admirably concise and always intelligent and thoughful synthesis.It will surelyas the publisher hopes 'challenge those ..... familiar with the period to think again ... and awaken the interest of those unfamiliar with it.' Christopher Storrs, Eurpean Hisorical Review, Vol 477.

About the Author

Joseph Bergin is Professor of History at the University of Manchester

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198731671
• ISBN-13: 978-0198731672
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,085,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Rathkyle, which is near Castlecomer in County Kilkenny, Ireland. I went to secondary school at Rockwell College, near Cashel in County Tipperary, finishing my studies there in 1966. I took a BA and then an MA in History in University College Dublin in 1970 and 1972 respectively, followed by a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge in 1977. I lectured in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland from 1976 to 1978, when I moved to the University of Manchester, where I have taught since and where I have been a full professor since 1996. My field of study is early modern European history (Renaissance to the French Revolution), with a special focus on 17th century France, on which I have written six books and numerous essays and articles. I have lived in France at various times, as both a student and as an academic on sabbatical leave, and I once played rugby (as outside-half) for the Paris rugby club, Stade Francais, which proved an unusually interesting entree into many things French. My wife, Sylvia, is French (and Armenian), and we have two adult children who are fully bi-lingual. I spent a year in Berlin in 2006-07, and was captivated by the city with its troubled and ever-changing history. My most recent book, Church, Society and Religious Change in France 1580-1730 (Yale UP, 2009), was largely written in Berlin, which provided ideal conditions for the job. I imagined as I arrived there that I would be fluent in German, but alas it did not quite happen - too many years of neglect are probably to blame for that!