History of European civilization library

"The deep impact of sixteenth-century religion on European society can still be felt in our own time. In this profound but lively study the movements inspired by Luther, Zwingli and Calvin are described with the mastery which the author's previous works in the field -- especially "The Eighth Reformation" -- have led us to expect. Other important influences, such as the Radicals, receive equally stimulating treatment, and the numerous illustrations from contemporary sources will help to create a vivid picture of the Reformation as a whole, against its social, political and intellectual background." [Back cover].

Brief survey of European civilization from 1914 to 1945 by a noted British historian.

"This remarkable study in social and cultural change explains how and why the Late Antique world, between c. 150 and c. 750 AD, came to differ from 'Classical civilization'. These centuries, as the author demonstrates, were the era in which the most deep-rooted of ancient institutions disappeared for all time. By 476 the Roman empire had vanished from western Europe; by 655 the Persian Empire had vanished from the Near East. Mr. Brown, Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, examines these changes and men's reactions to them, but his account shows that the period was also one of outstanding new beginnings and defines the far-reaching impact both of Christianity on Europe and of Islam on the Near East. The result is a lucid answer to a crucial question in world history; how the exceptionally homogenous Mediterranean world of c. 200 AD became divided into the three mutually estranged societies of the Middle Ages: Catholic Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam. We still live with the results of these contrasts." -- Provided by publisher

A very readable synoptic (originally a series of lectures) tour of the European Middle Ages which tell us why, seemingly against the odds (i.e. the encroach of Islam which, claim the author - and Pirenne - caused our Dark Age), Europe arrived in, and dominated the Modern Age. Certain ideas raised in The Rise of Christian Europe, such as the English Northumbrian monastery as a self-replicating, knowledge- and civilisation-preserving cell; the immediate basis of our Classically-based Renaissance following the Crusades, are very profound. A must-read book, Trevor-Roper's prose is also very entertaining.