The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France - (Blackwell Classic Histories of Europe) 2nd Edition by Robert J Knecht (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Drawing on more than 40 years of research and combining narrative with analysis, R. J. Knecht describes the rise and fall of France in the sixteenth century clearly and authoritatively.

From the Back Cover

In the new edition of this fascinating history, R. J. Knecht clearly and authoritatively describes the rise and fall of France in the sixteenth century. Drawing on more than forty years of research into primary and secondary sources, he combines narrative with analysis, whilst also reflecting on the cultural, economic and social contexts in which events occurred.

Now updated to take account of new research in the USA, Britain and France since 1996, this is the most comprehensive and balanced history of sixteenth-century France availbale in English. For the revised edition the bibliography has also been brought up to date to ensure that the book remains indispensable reading for anyone interested in French history and culture, or Renaissance and Reformation Europe.

Review Quotes

"Knecht has created a synthesis of the most up-to-date research . . . and at the same time restored narrative to history." The late J. Russell Major

"The book deserves to establish itself as the standard account in English of this most complicated of centuries in French History." Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Oxford (of the last edition)

About the Author

R. J. Knecht is Emeritus Professor of French History and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in the Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Société de l'Histoire de France, he has been Chairman of the Society for Renaissance Studies and of the Society for the Study of French History. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. He has published extensively in the field of French history, and his Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I (1994) recently appeared in a revised French edition under the title, Un prince de la Renaissance: François Ier et son royaume (1998).