The Early Reformation on the Continent Book

3½ stars, really.

This is not an introduction to Reformation Europe, this is the book to grab when you want to know more. Most important figures and events are dealt with, but the book isn't arranged chronologically but thematic and I think it can be a bit confusing if you don't have some previous knowledge of the subject. Here you can read about everything from book printing and schools to heretics and divorces - and there's tons of information to pick up (and Chadwick sometimes let a dry sense of humour shine through which is quite nice).

What stops this from being a 4 star book has to do with the editing, which is a pity (but I can't look past it). There are two different issues. The first is an overuse of 'he'. There are often long paragraphs which just refers to a 'he', which in a book that deals with tons and tons of different men can be really confusing - especially when there are several men mentioned in the paragraph. The other issue are some of the headlines. The chapter headlines are generally good, but sometimes a bit off. For example the chapter named 'Divorce' deals with everything concerning marriage. And some of the headlines in the text seem to be more of place-holders for the author than a help for the reader - for example the section titled 'Gerolamo Cardano' deals with both Cardano and Rabelais and is followed (without a new header) by a section on the discovery of America!

All in all a good book - but with a few simple tweaks it could have been great!