The Age of Power (The Development of Western Civilization)

One volume in the Development of Western Civilization Series of narrative essays in the history of our tradition from its origins to the present. In this essay, the authors have produced a work as much of synthesis as of summary. Even togh the 17th Century was, as they say, the period during which modern science, modern philosophy and the modern state all emerged, it has been studied less (except in the English field) than any other segment of European history since the end of the Middle Ages. The authors were confronted with the need to organize a field of study at the same time as presenting it in a brief narrative essay. They have not only produced an arresting thesis, but appropriately have traced its pattern in the bold outlines and highlighted its structure in the chiaroscuro that were characteristic of the baroque style, which they adopted as the symbol of this turbulent and paradoxical age.