COPYRIGHT, 1907, 1912, 1916, BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON AND CHARLES A. BEARD COPYRIGHT, 1918, 1919, BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 320.1 The Athenæum Press PREFACE This volume is the second part of a two-year course covering the history of European civilization from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge to the outbreak of the war of 1914. It is based on the authors' larger work, The Development of Modern Europe; the narrative has, however, been much simplified as well as shortened by the sedulous omission of all details that could be spared. The illustrations are so numerous and so fully explained as to form a sort of parallel pictorial narrative which amplifies and reënforces the text and adds a sense of reality extremely difficult to give in a highly condensed review. This second part of the Outlines is devoted mainly to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for it is the avowed purpose of the writers not to deal with history for its own sake, but ever and always with a view of making plain the world of to-day, which can be understood only in the light of the past. In order to enable us to catch up with our own times it is essential that the vast changes of the last two centuries be studied with special care. In short, Part I is the essential introduction to Part II, and Part II is arranged to bear directly on the conditions and problems which we confront to-day and upon which all intelligent persons should feel called to form some opinion. The introductory chapter will serve to recall and place in proper historical perspective the essentials of the period of transition from the Middle Ages to modern times the Renaissance and the Protestant revolt, the chief political events of the sixteenth century, and the conflicts which were brought to a close by the Peace of Westphalia. 349903 |