The Complete Idiot's Guide to European History

Front Cover
Penguin, 2006 - History - 438 pages
The history of modern Europe isn't simply the story of a bunch of dead white men who ruled most of the world from the dawn of a new age - the Renaissance - that brought light to the Dark Ages through to the chaotic last gasp of communism and the dawn of yet another new age - the European Union. Rather, it's an epic involving the cultural, economic, political, and social developments that played fundamental roles, for better or for worse, in the life we live today. Without an understanding of events and personalities in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Britain, Russia, Poland, and other lands, it's impossible to truly appreciate the development of contemporary institutions, the role of continuity and change in present-day society and politics, and the evolution of current forms of artistic and intellectual expressions.

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Contents

The End of the World as We Know
Civilization Reborn
Time for a Change in the Church
Time for an Alternative to the Church
The Catholic and Counter Reformations
Might Makes Right Right? c 14501750
Our Religion Is Better Than Your Religion
The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roman Empire
The French Revolution
You Say You Want More Revolution? c 17761900
The Industrial Revolution
Intriguing New Ideologies
NineteenthCentury Growing Pains
What a Tangled
Big Wars and Big Bangs Twentieth Century
Second Verse Worse Than the First

Am I in Charge? Absolutely
The Eastern Absolutists
Revolutions Galore c 15001800
Enlightening the Public Not the People
The Agricultural Revolution and an Expanding Europe
The Cold War
Changing Millennia
Appendix A Major Events in European History
Index
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

Nathan Barber teaches AP European History at Vanguard College Preparatory School in Waco, TX, where he maintains a website for students and educators. Barber has written eight educational books and four classroom workbooks and has published one novel of historical fiction. In January 2005, he was named Distinguished Young Alumnus of the Year by William Carey College.

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