CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE IN THE RENAISSANCE

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding and lively thematic survey
Review: Hale is the distinguished author of many books on the history of the Renaissance, and this work--written near the end of his career--is a synthesis of a lifetime of thought, study, and research on the subject. This is a masterful look at European civilization during the age we identify with the somewhat liquid term "Renaissance."

Hale's approach is thematic rather than strictly chronological, and the general reader may find this a bit distracting if he does not have any previous knowledge of the history of the period. For that reader it may also be somewhat scholarly in tone, but it is not a tedious or dry read by any means. On the contrary, Hale's wide range of learning and his use of many wonderful illustrations give the work a distinct and fascinating life, and an even flow that can be taken in easily-digestible chapters and sections. Each chapter is filled with Hale's insight and gift for making complex issues accessible. This is no small task when ! dealing with a period as complicated and multi-faceted as the Renaissance. Hale's grasp of the original sources is impressive, and he frequently allows them to speak for themselves, showing that we are not so far away from this period in our history (just as we are not so far from the world of classical antiquity which the Renaissance revived). The result is a magnificent study which looks at how Europe (and by extension the world) changed during the "long century" of 1450 to 1620: a period of tremendous discovery, violence and intellectual/artistic achievement.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece of historic writing
Review: I write this just a few days after the death of Prof. Hale, and can only express agreement with what the other reviewers below have said. This book is a wonderful monument to a great historian and scholar, and is an unmitigated delight to read, and to return to.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book, but a challenging read at times
Review: Mr. Hale's book is full on insight into the transformation that occurred in Europe during the Renaissance. His research is extensive, his analysis detailed, and his knowledge of the subject extensive. I feel that I really learned a lot about this interesting era in European history. Also, the author uses numerous illustrations and prints when discussing various points, which helped me a lot since I do not possess much of a background on this subject. The book will make for a most enjoyable read for anyone already familiar with this time period.

For those of us who do not know a lot about the Renaissance, sections of the text can be challenging. As one other reviewer mentions, Hale takes a thematic approach, rather than a chronological one which did prove challenging for me. Also, some sections are rather "text book like", and somewhat dull. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I just found it more challenging to finish than other historical books that I have read.

I recommend this book to anyone intersted in learning more about the Renaissance in Europe. If you do not know a lot about the subject, like myself, you may want to find a different starting point than this text. Otherwise, you may end up like me wondering how much you missed out based on your ignorance of the materials provided.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Insightful
Review: My second year history teacher in college used this book as our text book. Reading this book was like looking at history form the street level, enabling one to understand why they did what they did during that time. And it's also very fun read.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, horrible, cogent, confusing book
Review: The late J. R. Hale was one of THE experts on the European Renaissance (literally writing the book on it -- for Time-Life). That is what makes this book so confoundedly frustrating -- any indivual snippet from it is fascinating, because Hale was an excellent popular writer as well as a learned historian, but the field is so chronologically and geographically vast, covering all of Europe for several centuries, that Hale, in order to emphasize a particular point, throws together information from different countries and different times in the same narrative, sometimes even in the same paragraph.

As a "good read" the book is fine, until one starts getting caught up on the niggling suspicions that maybe Hale isn't exactly levelling with the reader 100% of the time. Why is it necessary to bring up a fact from another country in another century so closely upon the heels of a particular statement? Were there no contemporary examples which could have been cited?

Hale does a fine job of showing that the Renaissance was a universal European phenomenon, progressing at different rates in different countries, but what is less apparent is that when a bit of data from Northern Europe is brought in to bolster some bit of data from Italy, for example, which occured a century or more earlier, Italy was already in a different "world" than northern Europe at the time. Even explaining the problem of Hale's melange is difficult: while Italy was experiencing its High Renaissance, northern Europe was still muddling through the Middle Ages; when northern Europe was experiencing Renaissance events which highlight and amplify the events which took place in Italy a century or more earlier, Italy was well into the modern age and its Renaissance glories were cannon-blasted memories.

I repeat: this book IS a good read. What it is not, and should not by any means be considered, is a textbook or thorough history of the Reniassance. Any student who tries to write a paper on the Renaissance from this book is going to be in for a big surprise at grade time if the teacher is even remotely savvy to history.

If one wants to follow a thread diligently, of course, one may go from citation to citation in the index, but that tends to defeat Hale's purpose of writing an entertaining book -- better by far to read some of Hale's "serious" monographs or refer to the footnotes and check the bibliography.

As a simple, relaxing reading experience, however, "Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance" is good brain candy for the intelligentsia, and for snagging a date with someone a cut above the intellectual average, it is much better beach reading than a Harold Robbins novel!

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, horrible, cogent, confusing book
Review: The late J. R. Hale was one of THE experts on the European Renaissance (literally writing the book on it -- for Time-Life). That is what makes this book so confoundedly frustrating -- any indivual snippet from it is fascinating, because Hale was an excellent popular writer as well as a learned historian, but the field is so chronologically and geographically vast, covering all of Europe for several centuries, that Hale, in order to emphasize a particular point, throws together information from different countries and different times in the same narrative, sometimes even in the same paragraph.

As a "good read" the book is fine, until one starts getting caught up on the niggling suspicions that maybe Hale isn't exactly levelling with the reader 100% of the time. Why is it necessary to bring up a fact from another country in another century so closely upon the heels of a particular statement? Were there no contemporary examples which could have been cited?

Hale does a fine job of showing that the Renaissance was a universal European phenomenon, progressing at different rates in different countries, but what is less apparent is that when a bit of data from Northern Europe is brought in to bolster some bit of data from Italy, for example, which occured a century or more earlier, Italy was already in a different "world" than northern Europe at the time. Even explaining the problem of Hale's melange is difficult: while Italy was experiencing its High Renaissance, northern Europe was still muddling through the Middle Ages; when northern Europe was experiencing Renaissance events which highlight and amplify the events which took place in Italy a century or more earlier, Italy was well into the modern age and its Renaissance glories were cannon-blasted memories.

I repeat: this book IS a good read. What it is not, and should not by any means be considered, is a textbook or thorough history of the Reniassance. Any student who tries to write a paper on the Renaissance from this book is going to be in for a big surprise at grade time if the teacher is even remotely savvy to history.

If one wants to follow a thread diligently, of course, one may go from citation to citation in the index, but that tends to defeat Hale's purpose of writing an entertaining book -- better by far to read some of Hale's "serious" monographs or refer to the footnotes and check the bibliography.

As a simple, relaxing reading experience, however, "Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance" is good brain candy for the intelligentsia, and for snagging a date with someone a cut above the intellectual average, it is much better beach reading than a Harold Robbins novel!