This extensively illustrated book offers a new kind of introduction to Europe between 1500 and 1800. It considers the evolving economy and society - the basic facts of life for the majority of Europe's people. It shows how the religious and intellectual unity of western culture fragmented and dissolved under the impact of new ideas. It also examines politics to consider the emergence of modern attitudes and techniques in governing.

• Prologue: Europe and the World Around


• The Sixteenth Century, c.1500-c.1618


• 1: Alison Rowlands: The Conditions of Life for the Masses


• 2: Euan Cameron: The Power of the World: Renaissance and Reformation


• 3: Steven Gunn: War, Religion, and the State


• The Seventeenth Century, c.1618-c.1715


• 4: R. A. Houston: Colonies, Enterprises, and Wealth: the Economies of Europe and the Wider World


• 5: Robin Briggs: Embattled Faiths: Religion and Natural Philosophy


• 6: Jeremy Black: Warfare, Crisis, and Absolutism


• The Eighteenth Century, c.1715-c.1789


• 7: James C. Riley: A Widening Market in Consumer Goods


• 8: Norman Hampson: The Enlightenment


• 9: H. M. Scott: Europe Turns East: Political Developments


• Epilogue: The Old Order transformed 1789-1815

Euan Cameron is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.