Cambridge Modern History volumes 1-5

By: Adolphus William Ward

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Cambridge Modern History is a comprehensive modern history of the world, beginning with the 15th century age of Discovery, published by the Cambridge University Press in the United Kingdom and also in the United States. The first series, planned by Lord Acton and edited by him with Stanley Leathes, Sir Adolphus William Ward and G. W. Prothero, was launched in 1902 and totalled fourteen volumes, the last of them being an historical atlas which appeared in 1912. The period covered was from 1450 to 1910. A second series, The New Cambridge Modern History, now covering the years 1450 to 1945, appeared in fourteen volumes between 1957 and 1979, again concluding with an atlas. The original Cambridge Modern History was planned by Lord Acton, who during 1899 and 1900 gave much of his time to coordinating the project, intended to be a monument of objective, detailed, and collaborative scholarship. Acton was Regius professor of modern history at Cambridge, and a fellow of All Souls, Oxford. He had previously established the English Historical Review in 1886 and had an exalted reputation. The new work was published in fourteen volumes between 1902 and 1912, in the British Isles by the Cambridge University Press and in the USA by Macmillan & Co. of New York. Written mostly by English scholars, the first twelve volumes dealt with the history of the world from 1450 up to 1910. The final volume, numbered 12, was The Latest Age and appeared in 1910. There then followed two supplemental volumes. The history was later followed by similar multi-volume works for the earlier ages, namely the Cambridge Ancient History and the Cambridge Medieval History. As the first of such histories, it later came to be seen as establishing a tradition of collaborative scholarship. Volumes published I: The Renaissance (1902) II: The Reformation: The end of the Middle Ages (1903)[8] III: The Wars of Religion (1904) IV. The Thirty Years' War (1906) V. The Age of Louis XIV (1908)