The Renaissance in Europe (Paperback)

~ Margaret King (Author) "ON February 15, 1944, when World War II was still eighteen months away from its awful close, an Allied army faced a German force encamped..." (more)
Key Phrases: communal revolution, women humanists, urban republics, Middle Ages, Italian Renaissance, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This new, compact, up-to-date text presents a comprehensive view of the Renaissance, stressing its roots in Italy--a region that never lost contact with its Roman past. The text demonstrates how the Italian phase of the Renaissance reached into the rest of Europe and how it preconditioned later aspects of European civilization--religious reform, global encounters, the Scientific Revolution, the controversy over women’s roles--that do not belong strictly to the Renaissance.

About the Author

A native New Yorker, Margaret L. King was graduated from Sarah Lawrence College (BA, 1967) and Stanford University (MA, 1968; Ph.D. 1972). At Brooklyn College, CUNY, since 1972, and the Graduate Center since 1987, she has taught courses in the Italian Renaissance, the history of childhood, early modern women, the humanist tradition, early modern historiography, the early modern city, and ancient Greece and Rome. She has published four books on different aspects of the culture of Renaissance Italy: The Death of the Child Valerio Marcello (Chicago, 1994); Women of the Renaissance (Chicago, 1991); Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (Princeton, 1986); Her Immaculate Hand, ed. and trans., with Albert Rabil, Jr. (MRTS 1983, 2nd ed., 1992). In addition, her single-authored textbook Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History, is published by Prentice Hall (2nd ed., 2003). Her edition and translation (with Diana Robin) of the works of Isotta Nogarola is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in fall 2003, and her single-authored textbook The Renaissance in Europe from McGraw Hill in 2004. In addition, she has published over 30 articles, essays, review essays and reviews. She served as Executive Director of the Renaissance Society of America from 1987 through 1995, and book review editor of Renaissance Quarterly from 1997 to 2002. She was a member of the editorial board for the Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, published by Scribner’s in 2000 and winner of the Dartmouth Prize for that year; and is currently co-editor (with Albert Rabil, Jr.) of the series “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe” (texts by and about women, published by the University of Chicago Press) of which twenty volumes are published; 48 additional titles are in the pipeline. Her current research project is a study of mothers and sons in history (anticipated completion 2006).

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 1 edition (September 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072836261
• ISBN-13: 978-0072836264
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #355,673 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid textbook on the period, November 22, 2006

By	bluesy18 (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews

I used this in a Renaissance/Reformation course and it works reasonably well. The author (King) combines political and cultural history, getting away from a one-dimensional approach to the period. The first half of the text is especially nice, providing students with some historical context and treating art and humanism at length. The later chapters are a bit less connected, especially when King goes beyond Italy to consider Northern humanist movements and characters, but they are still valuable and hit the "highlights" one would want. Chapter 9 "The Renaissance and the Two Reformations" is the most problematic to me, simply because SO much is crammed into one chapter. But in King's defense, it's not meant to be a text on the Reformation, so she wasn't really obligated to treat that concept (or movement(s)) in any depth. Students who read the textbook (a rare breed these days) find it extremely useful and a good compliment to primary sources and lectures.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ehh... depends, October 4, 2005

By	Hopelessly Curious "Hope" (Bucks County, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renaissance in Europe (Paperback)

If you are a very maticulous reader, the book is filled with details not likely to be included in other texts. However, the book frequently goes off into random places and is difficult to grasp in terms of defining a concrete timeline. While not an impossible read, the organization and excessive details make this text a bit tedious.