Early Modern Italy: 1550-1796 (Short Oxford History of Italy) - Softcover

... this is a first rate volume ... Throughout, the pieces are interesting and the volume is important, not simply for specialists on Italy but also for those interested in early modern European history ... The essays are state-of-the-art, and the book will be useful to scholars and students alike. (Journal of European Studies)

Early Modern Italian history has traditionally been presented in the context of the absence of a unified Italian state, foreign domination and of relative decline to former wealth and power. This new volume calls on a wealth of recent research to portray the complex history of the early modern Italian states on their own terms. A leading team of historians traces Italian material and cultural bonds of identity and solidarity beyond their common political narrative - from the Reformation through the hopes and frustrations of reform, renewal and restructuring of social and economic power to the eventual collapse of the Old Regime.