This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims both to interrogate the notion of "early modernity" itself and to survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity.

Volume II is devoted to "Cultures and Power", opening with chapters on philosophy, science, art and architecture, music, and the Enlightenment. Subsequent sections examine 'Europe beyond Europe', with the transformation of contact with other continents during the first global age, and military and political developments, notably the expansion of state power.

Hamish Scott, Hon. Senior Research Fellow and Wardlaw Professor Emeritus of International History, University of Glasgow and University of St Andrews

Hamish Scott has published extensively on eighteenth-century international relations, government and enlightened absolutism, and on the early modern nobility. He taught for many years at the University of St Andrews, and is now attached to the University of Glasgow. A Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he is currently completing a major study, Forming Aristocracy: The reconfiguration of the European Nobility, which is to be published by Oxford University Press.

1. Political Thought, A.S. Brett
2. A Return to the Ancient World?, Margaret L. King
3. A Revolution in Natural Philosophy, Kathleen Crowther
4. Art and Architecture, T.K. Rabb
5. Music, Thomas Munck
6. Europe's Enlightenment, John Robertson and Avi Lifschitz
7. Navigation and Discovery, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
8. Iberian Empires, J.H. Elliott
9. Northern European Empires, Leonard Blusse
10. The Role of the Religious Orders, Thomas Cohen and Emanuele Colombo
11. Colonial Societies, Gabriel Paquette
12. Trade and the 'Global Economy', Matthew Romaniello
13. The Unconquered East, R. Bin Wong
14. Western European Monarchies, Ronald G. Asch
15. Northern and Eastern Monarchies, Robert Frost
16. Authority and Popular Resistance, Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
17. Rulers and Courts, Jeroen Duindam
18. Governance, Carlo Capra
19. Taxation and Finance, James D. Tracy
20. Republics and Republicanism, Robert von Friedeburg
21. Warfare on Land, Carol B. Stevens
22. Warfare at Sea, Louis Sicking
23. The Ottoman Empire and Europe, Gabor Agoston
24. Europe's Shifting Balance of Power, c.1450-1815, Brendan Simms
25. The Growth of Diplomacy, c.1450-1815, Paul Dover and Hamish Scott