Guide to the Study of Early Modern European History For Students ...

There are several good surveys of early modern European history. I highly
recommend two that were published in the multi-volume series I mentioned above, H. G.
Koenigsberger, G. L. Mosse, and G. Q. Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd ed.
(London: Longman, 1989), from the Longman General History of Europe, and Eugene F.
Rice and Anthony Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559, 2nd ed. (New
York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994) from the Norton History of Modern Europe. Both
reflect a style of historical analysis that was current in the 1970s, when they were first
published, but both have been updated. Both are models of what a general historical survey
ought to look like. These are the two volumes I would read first.
Koenigsberger's account is limited to the sixteenth century, but since it deals with the
period in such clear, well-informed, and convincing fashion, it can help you to develop an
understanding of the main areas of historical life that will prove perfectly appropriate to the
fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries as well. One of its outstanding features is the way in
which it integrates social, economic, and political history into a single survey.
Rice's book is much briefer and deals with a slightly different period. But Rice is not
only a real master at explaining large-scale historical phenomena by means of tellingly chosen
details. He is also determined to focus your attention on the complicated interplay between
intellectual, cultural, economic, social, and political history. Though you will not find as
many details in his book as in Koenigsberger's, the ones you do find may give you a better
grasp of the fundamental features of the period. Rice doesn't overwhelm you with details,
but he does inform you about the things you really need to know.
Something similar can be said about Theodore K. Rabb, The Struggle for Stability in
Early Modern Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975). This book does not belong
to any series, and it does not really offer an overview of European history. It is rather a
response to the claim that there was a general crisis in the seventeenth century that affected
Europe as a whole and marked one of the major turning-points in European history. That
claim was much debated in the 1950s and 1960s, and it is alive and well today: see Trevor
Aston, ed., Crisis in Europe, 1560-1660 (London: Doubleday Anchor, 1965), Geoffrey Parker
and Lesley M. Smith, eds., The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1978), Geoffrey Parker and Lesley M. Smith, eds., The General Crisis of the
Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1997), and Jonathan Dewald, Geoffrey
Parker, Michael Marmé, et al., "AHR Forum: The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
Revisited," American Historical Review 113 (2008): 1029-99.
Rabb believes that there was in fact a crisis and he offers his own account of it. But
he does so from such a broad and clearly defined perspective that this little book can serve
as an excellent introduction to the entire period from 1300 to 1700. It describes and analyzes
the arguments for and against different understandings of the idea of a general crisis, and it is
especially good at explaining exactly what came to an end in the seventeenth century. Most
important, it is one of the very few books available that succeed at presenting the history of
Europe as an integral whole, as opposed to dividing it into bits and pieces and proceeding by
adding one bit after another. Combining it with Koenigsberger and Rice makes for an
outstanding trio.
I also recommend Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States, 1494-1660 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1991). Bonney's emphasis is on politics, diplomacy, and war, but he
does pay a good deal of attention to matters like religion, economy, and society. His book is
reliable, well-informed, unusually comprehensive for a volume written by a single author,
and remarkably detailed. If you use this book as a basic frame of reference for the whole
examination, you won't go wrong.
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