Best Histories of Europe 16th and 17th Century – 1500-1700

– Early Modern European History 1517-1648 – Collection

Free pdf online books on History of Europe 1517-1648. Some books: Spain and the Empire, 1519-1643, Ottoman Imperialism during the Reformation, Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World, Reformation Europe, Letters Written by a Turkish Spy, The Transformation of Europe, Christendom Destroyed, the Fugger News-Letters, many more.

– 17th Century European History – Collection

Free online pdf books on 17th Century Europe. Some books: Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, Louis XIV, Shakespeare’s Cross-cultural Encounters, Universities and Society in Pre-industrial Britain, The Age of Discovery, Renaissance Culture and the Everyday, How the Reformation Happened, Rebels and Rulers 1500-1660, The Age of the Baroque 1610-1660, The Age of Power, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, The Expanding World, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, The Age of Conversation, The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic versus Classic Art, The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine, The Magic Circle of Rudolf II, The Rise of the Great Powers 1648-1815, European Society 1500-1700, Cromwell, The French Wars of Religion. Many more free pdf books about 17th Century Europe.

Centuries of Childhood

Aries, Philippe

1962

“The theme of this extraordinary book is the emergence of the modern conception of family life and the modern image of the nature of children. The discovery of childhood as a distinct phase of life, M. Aries shows, is a recent event. Until the end of the Middle Ages, the child was, almost as soon as he was weaned, regarded as a small adult, who mingled, competed, worked and played with mature adults. Only gradually did parents begin to encourage the separation of adults and children, and a new family attitude, oriented around the child and his education, appeared.” – Book jacket

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present

Barzun, Jacques

HarperCollins 2000

“Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500.” -Publisher.

The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648-1815

Blanning, T. C. W.

Penguin 2008

“Thoroughly covers the politics and endless wars of the period…. History writing at its glorious best.” -NY Times.

Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (vol 1)

Braudel, Fernand

1977

“The focus of Fernand Braudel’s great work is the Mediterranean world in the second half of the sixteenth century, but Braudel ranges back in history to the world of Odysseus and forward to our time, moving out from the Mediterranean area to the New World and other destinations of Mediterranean traders. Braudel’s scope embraces the natural world and material life, economics, demography, politics, and diplomacy.” – Publisher.

Structures of Everyday Life; the limits of the possible

Braudel, Fernand

1979

Volume 1 of the 3-volume series, “Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century”.
This social and economic history of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution organizes a multitude of details to paint a rich picture of everyday life.

Origin of the Jesuits

Brodrick, James , S.J

1940

“The Society of Jesus, the largest religious order in the Catholic Church, has aroused violent emotions and conflicts from the very day it was founded. Praised by its friends as a brilliant and uncompromising bulwark of the Church, it has been as bitterly denounced by its enemies. Throughout its entire history, the Society has been in the forefront of any struggle involving the Church as her devoted champion.” – Book cover.

The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800

Butterfield, Herbert

Macmillan 1957

Contents: The historical importance of a theory of impetus – The conservatism of Copernicus – The study of the heart down to William Harvey – The downfall of Aristotle and Ptolemy – The experimental method in the seventeenth century – Bacon and Descartes – The effect of the scientific revolution on the non-mechanical sciences – The history of the modern theory of gravitation – The transition to the Philosophe movement in the reign of Louis XIV – The place of the scientific revolution in the history of western civilisation – The postponed scientific revolution in chemistry – Ideas of progress and ideas of evolution.

Reformation

Chadwick, Owen

1964

In this volume of the “Pelican History of the Church” Professor Owen Chadwick deals with the formative work of Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, with the special circumstances of the English Reformation, and with the Jesuits and the Counter-Reformation.

Armies and Societies in Europe 1494-1789

Corvisier, Andre

1979

“One of France’s leading military historians examines European military history within the perspective of social and economic change… Just as European society changed greatly between 1494 and 1789, a fundamental change took place in the role of the military. During the ancien regime, the professional use of arms evolved from a private to a public institution and the military became the essential instrument of state power…” – Book jacket.

Church and the Age of Reason 1648-1789

Cragg, Gerald R.

1960

Volume in the “Penguin History of the Church” series. This span in the history of the Christian Church stretches from the age of religious and civil strife which existed before the middle of the seventeenth century to the age of industrialization and republicanism which followed the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic wars.

Women of the Renaissance

Dean, Ruth and Melissa Thomson

2005 Dewey Dec. 940.2

Women of the Renaissance brings to life the daily work and notable achievements of early modern women in their roles as wives and mothers, caregivers, workers, religious leaders, queens, rebels, pirates, scholars, writers and artists.

Counter Reformation

Dickens, Arthur Geoffrey

1969

The reform of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century was historically as important as the contemporary Protestant Reformation. Though never committed solely to fighting Protestantism, it inevitably also became a Counter Reformation, since it soon faced the threat created by Luther and his successors. The century between the career of Ignatius Loyola and that of Vincent de Paul became a classic age of Catholicism. The lives of its saints, popes and secular champions could hardly be made more fascinating by any novelist. While paying due attention to the great characters, the author also considers the broader political, social and cultural features of the Counter Reformation.

Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1689

Dunn, Richard S.

1979

Volume in the “Norton History of Modern Europe”.
Calvinism versus Catholicism in Western Europe. Religion and politics ; Spain under Philip II ; The French wars of religion, 1562-1598 ; The revolt of the Netherlands ; Elizabethan England The decline of Spain — Political disintegration in Central and Eastern Europe. The Holy Roman Empire, 1555-1618 ; Eastern borderlands ; The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648 ; The rise of Austria and Brandenburg-Prussia — The psychology of limited wealth. Population ; Agriculture and industry ; Dutch commercial capitalism ; Property and privilege ; Women and witchcraft ; The price revolution ; Capitalism and Calvinism ; Mercantilism — Absolutism versus constitutionalism. The rise of French absolutism ; The Puritan revolution ; France under Louis XIV ; The Glorious Revolution — The century of genius. The scientific revolution ; Religious art in the Baroque age ; Five philosophical writers ; The golden age of English, Spanish, and French drama — Toward a new balance of power. The west European wars of 1688-1713 ; The east European wars of 1683-1721 ; Peter the Great ; Europe in 1715.

Reformation, 1520-1559, ed.

Elton, G.R.

1975

Vol. 2 in the series “The New Cambridge Modern History”.
The age of the Reformation -Economic change – The Reformation movements in Germany – The Reformation in Zurich, Strassburg and Geneva – The Anabaptists and the sects – The Reformation in Scandinavia and the Baltic – Politics and the institutionalism of reform in Germany – Poland, Bohemia and Hungary – The Reformation in France, 1515-1559 – The Reformation in England – Italy and the papacy – The new orders – The empire of Charles V in Europe – The Habsburg-Valois wars – Intellectual tendencies

Families in Former Times: Kinship, Household, and Sexuality

Flandrin, Jean-Louis

1979

In this book, the author provides a detailed analysis of kinship, household and family relations in early modern France. He discusses the strength of kinship and family ties, the structure of households, the rights and duties of husband and wife, their authority over their children, the role of the family in education, the position of servants within the family, the attitudes and sentiments of different family members towards each other and the differences between noble and peasant families. He also deals with the changes in the patterns of sexual life that occurred in this period and investigates the beginnings of birth control in the late eighteenth century, and the possibilities of abortion and divorce. Professor Flandrin uses primarily documentary evidence from early modern France, but also draws comparisons with England in the same period, and with the medieval and modern family. His book provides a fascinating account of the intimate life of men and women in past society, and shows how that society has exerted a lasting influence on the behaviour of our contemporaries.

Madness And Civilization

A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason

Foucault, Michel

1965

Examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 – from the late Middle Ages, when insanity was still considered part of everyday life and fools and lunatics walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, asylums were first built, and walls were erected between the “insane” and the rest of humanity.

Age of the Baroque 1610-1660

Friedrich, Carl J.

1962

The pattern of politics and economics – Baroque in life and letters – Baroque in art and music – Religion, philosophy and the sciences – The sultry years of precarious balance: the Dutch ascendancy – The Thirty Years’ War and the liquidation of the medieval empire – The modern state absolute: France under Richelieu and Mazarin – The eastern dynasties: Hapsburg, Romanov, Hohenzollern and Vasa, 1610-1660 – The modern state limited: the Parliament, Civil War, Commonwealth and Protectorate – The learned ax: a bibliographical essay

World of Humanism, 1453-1517

Gilmore, Myron P

1952

The frontiers of Latin Christendom — The direction of economic and social change — Dynastic consolidation — The structure and function of government — The particular interests of the Christian princes — The condition of the Christian church — Scholarship and philosophy — The program of Christian humanism — Art and science.

The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind

Grayling, A. C.

Bloomsbury 2016

“The Age of Genius explores the eventful intertwining of outward event and inner intellectual life to tell, in all its richness and depth, the story of the 17th century in Europe. It was a time of creativity unparalleled in history before or since, from science to the arts, from philosophy to politics.

Elizabeth I and Tudor England

Greenblatt, Miriam

2002

A short history, probably for high school readers.