Compared to the rest of the illustrious Headlines In History [1] [2] [3], this book sits somewhere in the middle.  This book keeps up at least some focus on cross-cultural comparison, but not nearly to the high standard known in most of the rest of the series.  Like the decline of the Ottoman Empire during the same period, the signs of decay that led the Headlines In History:  The 1700’s to be such a disappointment are present in this book, though without knowing how low its decline would reach it might be easy to overlook that given the fact that the decline of the 1600’s is not immense.  Noticeable, but not immense.

The biggest difficulty with this volume is that, with notable and very appreciated exceptions (except for essays on the rise of the Manchu and Tokugawa dynasties, as well as a very thoughtful examination of Basho, a master of the haiku, one of my favorite types of poems to write), this book consists either of an examination of the West or the rest of the world as seen through Western eyes.  The cross-cultural strength of the first six volumes of this work is weakened in this work, only to be nearly jettisoned in the very weak (and much shorter) book on the 1700’s.  For example, this book ignores the expansion of the Moghul Empire in India, only devoting a short essay to the Taj Mahal as seen by a French visitor.  Likewise, the book ignores the entire continents of Africa and South America except for a part of the essay on Dutch expansion which mentions both in passing, and also includes a very slight mention of Oceania, and one essay about the slave trade.

The book is organized into six sections, by theme rather than by geographical area.  The first section, called “A Century of Discovery” chooses to engage in an examination of the scientific revolution, an ode to the experimental method, an examination of advances in biology, and a thoughtful excerpt from Baruch Spinoza.  The second section is about coming to America, specifically the English colonies (and not Canada, Brazil, or Spanish America, as might be hoped, or the lesser known colonies like New Netherlands and New Sweden), including accounts on Jamestown, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania (the third particularly insightful), as well as an intriguing primary source document about the Indians of New England from some colonists of the area, an essay on witchcraft, and some shocking 17th century accounts of the slave trade.

The third section examines the emergence of new dynasties, starting with the rise of the Romanovs in Russia, examining Peter the Great’s trip to the west, and including an amusing primary source showing how the uncouth Russian Czar was viewed by the wife and daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg in their own words.  The other two chapters focused on the rise of the Manchu dynasty in China and the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan (but nothing on India or the rise of the Hohenzollerns in Prussia).  The fourth section focuses entirely on England with the century of discord there, starting with a critical biographical sketch of James I, then giving an overview of the English Civil War, a primary account of the trial and execution of Charles I, an essay about the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an excerpt from Hobbes’ Leviathan, a very thoughtful examination from Professor Trevor-Roper about the Glorious Revolution, and an except from Locke that falsely ascribes Locke’s rhetorical opponent as Hobbes (when in fact it was Sir Robert Filmer, whose work is ignored here but more important than Hobbes’ in showing the tenor of the divine right theory of the times).

The fifth section covers the changing face of Europe, examining the Thirty Year’s War, the rise of Sweden, the complicated nature of the negotiation of the Peace of Westphalia, a bittersweet examination of the reign of Louis XIV, a self-contradictory but revealing primary source excerpt from the advice of Louis XIV to his son, along with an essay about the Dutch East India and West India Companies and a poorly titled work about the decline of the Ottoman Empire.  The sixth and final section closes the text with an examination of art and culture in the 17th century, looking at music in the Baroque period, the vitality of Baroque painting, the golden era of Theater in England, Spain, and France, the literature of the 17th century and its political importance, Basho’s mastery of the haiku in Japan, a primary account of the visits of a Frenchman to the Taj Mahal, an essay about the rise of the middle class in Fance, and a primary account from diarist Samuel Pepys about the Great Fire of London in 1666.

As usual, the primary sources are a strength of this series, but it would have been excellent for the work to include more accounts of non-Westerners in their own eyes, and a greater focus on what was going on in Africa or Asia apart from Western influence.  This book suffers a bit in comparison with earlier volumes because of its Eurocentric bias, a tendency that becomes very severe in the volume on the 1700’s.  It remains to be seen whether this tendency will be arrested in the volumes on the 1800’s and 1900’s that remain to be read and reviewed in this series, but such a tendency to cherry pick sources in favor of the West precisely when non-western history and sources become more prevalent and more important is an inexcusable flaw in a series that prides itself on its cross-cultural approach and one that begins so strongly in the first half of the series to give a thoughtful examination of non-Western cultures in their own terms.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/book-review-headlines-in-history-the-1000s/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/book-reviews-headlines-in-history-the-1100s-1200s-1300s-1400s-and-1700s/

[3] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/book-review-headlines-in-history-the-1500s/