Christendom Destroyed

An Economist and Financial Times Book of the Year

“A magisterial account of the birth of modern Europe, from the Reformation, which broke the dominance of the Roman Catholic church, to the Peace of Westphalia, which entrenched the idea of the nation-state.”—The Economist

“A masterly synthesis of depth and breadth…. Mr. Greengrass is adept at material and environmental history….  ‘Christendom Destroyed’ captures a great deal of truth about the wrenching transitions of the early modern age…. with admirable clarity and a notable lack of condescension.”—Wall Street Journal

“An immensely well-informed, informative and engaging account of the disintegration of “Christendom’s universalism.”—Glen C. Altschuler, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Any student of European history will find this a solid, close survey and a ‘must’ for understanding social and religious change.”—Midwest Book Review

“An absorbing and enlightening book that explains much about the emergence of modern Europe.”—Booklist

“It is Mark Greengrass’ achievement to have imposed upon his subject a sense of order which draws the reader along…. He may be commended, too, for having written a book which, by illustrating human situations and predicaments, places men and women centre stage, while recognising the importance of ideas and their influence upon the world of the time. It is characteristics such as these which earn the book the five stars which it surely deserves.”—Christopher Allmand, The Tablet

“Like its fellow volumes in the Penguin History of Europe, Greengrass’s book is a model of scholarly dedication…. Nothing escapes Greengrass’s fascinated gaze, from the new foods that came to Europe from the Americas, such as pumpkins, pineapples and potatoes, to the extraordinary politics of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, arguably Europe’s first constitutional monarchy. Almost every page has a memorable nugget.”—Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times (UK)

“[Mark Greengrass] writes with clarity and vigour, in a highly engaging style, and his book is as full of fascinating nuggets as it is of wise judgements…. Mark Greengrass succeeds brilliantly in bringing to life a vanished world that is consistently strange and surprising—and sometimes disturbing and repellant—even as he encourages us to recognise the ways in which it prefigures our own.” —Peter Marshall, Literary Review (UK)

“[Christendom Destroyed] offers insight into the extraordinary turmoil that the average European endured in an era typically described through reverent admiration for art, architecture, and intellectual development. Using the histories of well-chosen cities and countries as examples for each discussion, Greengrass reveals that it was ‘curiosity [that] destroyed Christendom.’” —Publisher’s Weekly

“Greengrass reaches deeply behind the early myth of a united Europe…. A tour de force of scholarship that begins with a gradual and accessible buildup and then descends, like the century, into a convulsion of dynastic entanglements.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Christendom Destroyed is a magnificent achievement. Engagingly written, remarkably comprehensive in scope, impeccable in its scholarship, it should find a wide readership which will be rewarded with a new understanding of one of the most decisive eras in European history. There are insights on every page. Mark Greengrass brings his deep learning and light touch to a period that now bears the mark of his strong and convincing interpretation.”—Robert A. Schneider, Professor of History, Indiana University

“Mark Greengrass is a leading authority on early modern Europe, and he’s written an extraordinary book, one that combines learning, imagination, and insight. It explores the full range of the European experience in these years, with attention to all social classes and regions, and to Europe’s interactions with other continents. This is history that takes seriously our twenty-first century questions about what Europe is and where it fits in the larger world.”—Jonathan Dewald, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

“Composed in four countries (three of them in the European Union), Mark Greengrass’s contribution to this series offers an unusually wide-angled panorama of European history from Luther to the Peace of Westphalia, seasoned with a plethora of richly-illustrative and often unfamiliar illustrations. While some centripetal concepts vanished in this era, an emergent Europe composed of composite states acquired decisive global advantages through scientific breakthroughs and overseas empires.”—William Monter, Professor of History, Northwestern University