European History: Books

The first comprehensive reference work devoted exclusively to this dark, but critical, period in the history of Western civilization. * Accessible A-Z format for nearly 200 entries covering the people, places, and events during the fall of the Roman Empire and the birth of early medieval Europe * Detailed chronology of the nearly 1,000 years of the European barbarian era * Maps and photographs covering key events and places * Articles on art, culture, religion, and day-to-day issues such as agriculture, farm animals, diet, marriage, and burial

Films such as "Gladiator", "Braveheart", and "Attila the Hun" and books on people such as the Vikings and Celts are drawing attention to the ancient people of Europe. With the end of the Cold War, there is also renewed interest in the people formerly behind the Iron Curtain, such as the Kosovars or Estonians. Other people, like the Basques and Walloons, continue to be in the media, although the historical context for the present conflict is often not well understood. "Encyclopedia of European Peoples" is an A-to-Z reference to the people of Europe, from ancient to modern times, summarizing their origin, language, history, culture, and relationship to other people. This encyclopedia includes entries on all people that for a time maintained a cultural identity. An index offers the reader additional access to the information.

This volume gathers together biographical entries from the titles in the Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages series with the aim of presenting in one place biographies of the most important people in medieval Europe between AD 500 and 1500. Entries will fall under the following categories: artists; authors; cartographers, cosmographers and geographers; diplomats and envoys; dynasties; explorers; families; historians and chroniclers; kings; monks; musicians; nuns; persons; popes; queens; religious leaders; rulers and scientists. The lives of over 500 individuals are discussed, studying their impact on politics, religion and the arts across medieval Europe. The volume also includes personalities from the Jewish and Islamic worlds.

In 1517, Martin Luther's legendary Ninety-five Theses set in motion a chain of events that fundamentally altered European history. The resulting Reformation of the sixteenth century proved to be one of the most important and far-reaching phenomena of an era marked by dramatic religious and social upheaval. A critical chapter in the history of Christian thought, the movement provoked political, social, and cultural transformations that profoundly changed the Western world. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation is the first major reference to cover the immense subject of the Reformation in its entirety.

Covering the period comprising the Renaissance and Reformation, this volume introduces a unique set of interdisciplinary biographical dictionaries providing basic information on the people who have contributed significantly to the culture of Western civilization.

The Age of Wars of Religion saw navies, armies, armed merchant companies, and mercenaries battle one another and local potentates in many lands and along numerous shores. Wars of religion were fought in and between all the major religions and civilizations, from Europe to China, in Africa, and in the isolated Americas, mixing motives of knightly idealism, mercenary greed, and competing claims of divine sanction. This unparalleled work traces the extraordinary upheavals of the period in military technology, competing theologies, and civilizational change that were brought about by, or impinged upon, military conflict.

The first multivolume encyclopedia to document the history of one of the most influential religious movements of the Middle Ages--the Crusades. * 1,000 A-Z entries and texts dealing with individual crusades, people such as the kings of Jerusalem and emperors of Constantinople, places such as Jerusalem, Antioch, and Riga, institutions, literary and historiographical sources, and thematic aspects * 120 contributors representing 25 countries * A chronology of crusading expeditions * 54 maps of major crusades and settlements in the Holy Land, Greece, Iberia, and the Baltic lands * Photographs of castles and landscapes and illustrations of artworks and coins