The revised edition of this classic text covers both the turbulence of war which raged throughout this period, and explores how, alongside such turbulence, it was possible for some countries to both flourish and produce spectacular advances in art, science and thinking.

John Stoye was formerly a Fellow and Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford and the author of English Travellers Abroad 1604-1667 (1952), The Siege of Vienna (1964) and Marsigli's Europe 1680-1730 (1994).