Sixteenth Century Europe Book

In the hands of a scholar like Richard Mackenney, the 1500s seem like only yesterday. Every aspect of the culture and politics of the time is illuminated and connected with the trends working their way throughout Europe. For example, one can see the disputes of religious doctrine intertwined with political power that for the modern reader suggest that the interlude of the Enlightenment to follow could well have been only that, an interlude. Twentieth-first century America, though this is only implicit in what Mackenney writes. resembles that landscape of dogma, identity and faction threatening the state at every turn. A pleasure to read as much as it is a book of enormous scholarship. Highly recommended.