The Seventeenth Century.

Bergin, Joseph, ed. The Seventeenth Century

(Short Oxford History of Europe.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. xii + 265 pp. bibl, maps, index. $17.95. ISBN: 0-19-873167-1.

In his introduction, Bergin discusses the "lack of an overarching 'identity' applicable to seventeenth-century Europe as a whole" and the difficulty of embracing or reconciling the various identities that have been ascribed to parts or all of the continent for this period. However, drawing our attention to political and military crises, the return of the plague, religious upheaval, and popular riots and revolts, he notes that "the older view of the century as a century of 'greatness,' one of high achievement and progress towards modernity, is now a Humpty-Dumpty that can-not be put together again. ... The chapters that follow will provide ample evidence of that." The book has an introduction, conclusion and six chapters: the economy; society; politics; war and international relations; the age of curiosity; and Europe and the wider world. It is part of a series that includes histories of the eighteenth century, the nineteenth century, and classical Greece, and will eventually include histories of the Romans, t he early, high, and late middle ages, the sixteenth century, and the early and late twentieth century; This volume provides a further reading section, a chronology of the 'long seventeenth century,' a map section, and a full index.