Early Modern Europe 1500-1789

Back cover

¿To compress three dramatic centuries into little more than 300 pages is a formidable undertaking, but Professor Koenigsberger has accomplished it with enviable skill and professionalism.¿

Christopher F Black, History

Since its publication in 1987 early Modern Europe (1500 - 1789) has become a bestselling, well-loved classic. Opening at the climax of the Renaissance - when an educated, city-based laity began to bring their special demands and sensibilities to bear on earlier traditions the book chronicles the dawning of a new age on the continent.

Combining the freshness of an interpretive essay with the breadth of wide-ranging historical synthesis, Koenigsberger paints a detailed picture of the Reformation and its significance as increasingly powerful nations began to intrude on their subjects¿ public and private lives. The text ends with a discussion of the conflicts between personal freedom and the rights of authority that shattered forever the old European order.

Front flap

Early Modern Europe 1500 - 1789 was originally published as the central volume in the bestselling illustrated Series, ¿A History of Europe¿, edited by H G Koenigsberger and Asa Briggs, charting Europe¿s history from the collapse of the Roman Empire to modern times.

¿In an age of specialists, only an historian of exceptional courage and learning would attempt to scan fourteen centuries of European history in two relatively brief volumes and expect to emerge with his reputation intact. Professor Koenigsberger is such an historian.¿

Howell A Lloyd, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

The author

H G Koenigsberger was, from 1973 until his retirement in 1984, Professor of History at King¿s College, University of London, having held chairs of Modern History at the University of Nottingham and, from 1966 to 1973, Early Modern History at Cornell University. He has published widely, including another volume in the Silver Library, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, written in its bestselling second edition with George L Mosse and G Q Bowler. Professor Koenigsberger is Fellow and former Vice Prseident of the Royal Historical Society, as well as a member of a number of distinguished European scholarly associations. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has received an Economienda from the King of Spain in the Order of Isabel la Catholica.

Back flap

(275 years of publishing history logo - from Louise Corless)

As part of Longman¿s 275th Anniversary - a landmark in publishing history - we are launching an exciting collection of classic books.

The Silver Library celebrates the very best in history writing published by Longman. This selection of seminal and best-selling works by world renowned authorities will become the essential collection.

Titles in the Silver Library are:

John Tosh

The Pursuit of History, Third Edition

Bernard W Anderson

The Living World of the Old Testament, Fourth Edition

R H C Davis

A History of Medieval Europe, Second Edition

H G Koenigsberger, George L Mosse, G Q Bowler

Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Second Edition

Barry Coward

The Stuart Age 1603 - 1714, Second Edition

H G Koenigsberger

Early Modern Europe 1500 - 1789

Asa Briggs

The Age of Improvement 1783 - 1867, Second Edition

M S Anderson

The Ascendancy of Europe 1815 - 1914, Second Edition

James Joll

The Origins of the First World War, Second Edition

J M Roberts

Europe 1880 - 1945, Second Edition

Martin Kitchen

Europe Between the Wars

Peter Calvocoressi

World Politics Since 1945, Seventh Edition

Christopher F Black, History

Opening at the height of the Renaissance, the book chronicles the dawning of a new age on the European continent. Koenigsberger paints a detailed picture of the Reformation and its significance as increasingly powerful nations began to intrude on their subjects' public and private lives. He gives account of the Counter-Reformation and the political and economic crisis that accompanied it, and an in-depth discussion of the age of Louis XIV and the balance of power in Europe. A full chapter addresses the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, and throughout attention is given to social, cultural and intellectual developments.

The book concludes with a summary of the situation throughout Europe on the eve of the French Revolution, and the dramatic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution and the beginnings of a consumer society.

Combining the freshness of an interpretive essay with the breadth of wide-ranging historical synthesis, Koenigsberger paints a detailed picture of the Reformation and its significance as increasingly powerful nations began to intrude on their subjects' public and private lives. The text ends with a discussion of the conflicts between personal freedom and the rights of authority that shattered forever the old European order.

Early Modern Europe 1500 - 1789 was originally published as the central volume in the bestselling illustrated Series, `A History of Europe', edited by H G Koenigsberger and Asa Briggs, charting Europe's history from the collapse of the Roman Empire to modern times.

2. Expansion and reformation 1500-1600

3. Counter Reformation and crisis 1560-1600

4. The Age of Louis XIV and the Balance of Power 1660-1750

5. Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment 1500-1750

6. Before the Revolution