Headlines In History: The 1500’s, by Stephen Currie, Bonnie Szumski, and Scott Barbour, editors
Given an excellent century to work with, this book succeeds very well in not only covering a broad scope of world history, but also a broad scope of subject matter with high quality primary and secondary sources. In a way similar to the best of its series [1], the book manages to mix a broad area of topics and some depth in a very manageable 300 page volume that is quick to read and filled with fascinating excerpts.
As can be expected, the majority of this work (about two thirds) focuses on Europe, but the focus is not as heavy handed as in some volumes (like the 1700’s). The most troubling aspect of the book is not its European focus, but its two notable anachronistic trends: its consideration of England’s victory over Spain in 1588 as the sign that Britain had made it as a major power in Europe, and its assumption against the primary evidence included in the book itself that the Europeans were particularly racist towards Americans and Africans, a tendency particularly present in the Basil Davidson excerpt included in this volume.
The first part of the book contains a series of intriguing excerpts about politics and government in Europe. This section includes essays on Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Battle of Lepanto, The long war between the Huguenots and Catholics in France, Ivan the Terrible and Russia, the Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Henry VII and Thomas More’s struggle of conscience versus politics. None of these chapters strays very far from the popular areas of 16th century history, but they are well written overall.
The second section, a brief one, examines the rise of England as a world power. Why this would be worthy of an entire section is something that puzzles me, given England’s particular debut as a world power was really more of a 17th century phenomenon, though this book does contain an interesting commentary on the last colony of Roanoke, besides another chapter devoted to piracy with Sir Francis Drake, and an essay about the not-so-invincible Spanish Armada.
The third section deals with life and culture in 16th century Europe, which gives it a bit of a social history and art history background that is worthwhile and intriguing. To add to the interest, a couple of well-known scientists add their comments about scientific revolutions and the role of worldview. Overall, this section demonstrates the worldview influences of the time on such fields as sculpture, painting, and drama. Essays are included in this chapter about superstition (an excellent primary source from a French annalist), Renaissance city life, pre-Shakespearean Drama (an excerpt from an Everyman play), a very fascinating criticism of English fashion by an English author of the 16th century, an essay by Stephen Jay Gould on the Gregorian Calendar, an essay on the Copurnican Revolution by Thomas Kuhn, and a very insightful short essay on Shakespeare. This section is quite possibly the most excellent in the whole book as far as interconnections between science, art, and religion and its depth of analysis, as well as primary source documentation, is concerned.
The fourth section includes four additional essays on the Italian Renaissance. These essays include biographical portrayals of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, as well as examinations of Renaissance painting and the relationship of science, art, and the Renaissance. These works continue the previous section’s interconnections of various fields often examined separately to show how worldview changes lead to drastic changes in art. It’s a thought worth examining in light of more contemporary trends as well.
The fifth section deals with the Reformation. Included in this section are essays about the Roman Catholic Church in 1500, early Lutheran thought about justification by faith, Luther’s examination at the Diet of Worms, an excellent excerpt (that the editor mistakenly calls hysterical) from John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion, and an essay about the Couter Reformation. These essays show the religious base of a lot of the political, artistic, and literary turmoil of the 16th century.
The sixth section takes a necessary and profitable trip beyond Europe. While this section opens with a highly partisan account of the Atlantic Slave trade by Basil Davidson (a noted historian of Africa), the rest of the section has less axes to grind, including a fascinating biographical essay of Leo Africanus and its examination of North African culture, an essay on Suleiman the Magnificent, essays on 16th century Japan [2] and the Akbar’s Mughal Empire, and a very tasty essay on how European exploration expanded the world’s menu with such foods as corn (maize), peppers, tomatoes, and turkey. Yummy.
The seventh section of the book examines four accounts of very different European missions of exploration. The first is a primary account of Cabral’s exploration of Brazil by his official scribe, Pedro Vas de Caminha, an account devoid of racism but full of curiosity. Then there is an essay about Maegellan and his poor luck at missing South Pacific islands, an essay on Barents’ ill-fated second expedition in search of the Northeast Passage, and a very thoughtful examination of the origin of atlases in 16th century Europe.
The last section of the book is on the fall of the Aztecs and Incas, a melancholy but necessary section of 16th century world history. This section includes a couple of essays on the fall of the Aztec Empire, including an account by a 16th century immigrant to Mexico and a historical excerpt about the siege of Tenochtitlan. The book as a whole closes with an account of the fall of the Inca empire.
As usual, this book is a strong contender in its series [1], despite the biases of the book editor and a few of the sources. Nonetheless, by letting better historians and the people of the time do most of the talking, the book manages to avoid too much trouble. As it is, the book includes a variety of different fields, different sources, and different cultures, making it a worthwhile member of the Headlines of History series.
Edge Induced Cohesion 