The Reformation

A History

By: Diarmaid MacCulloch

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill - and be killed - for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's award-winning history brilliantly recreates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians - from the zealous Martin Luther and his 95 Theses to the polemical John Calvin to the radical Igantius Loyola, from the tortured Thomas Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives - overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.

©2003 Diarmaid MacCulloch (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Superb...An essential work of religious history." ( Kirkus)

An essential piece of history to understand the modern world

Best book I’ve read in years. Political, scientific, and military history of Europe require this *detailed* understanding of religion. Also illuminates today, our schisms, our end-of-the-world obsessions, our 'morals', our weaponizing of thought.
Also illuminates many of the great things of today - our tolerance, our pursuit of scientific truth, our desire to make a better world and be better people, our ability to sacrifice and persevere for beliefs, our ability to change, to adapt, and to strike out on our own if needed.
Highly recommended.

Great book, inaccurate and error-prone reading

This is a great book, a thorough history of the Protestant Reformation (from a secular perspective). It is extremely detailed and very well-written.

I read the book while following along with the audiobook (just to keep my mind from wandering), and I'm glad I did--the audiobook reading is badly flawed. It has far too many errors for something that got published. Here's a sample of some of the errors:

the year "1190" is read for "1290" (p. 7)
"in disgrace" is read for "in prison" (p. 96)
"highly" is read for "hugely" (p. 99)
"literature" is read for "liturgy" (p. 103)
"King Charles VII" is read for "King Charles VIII" (p. 106)

et cetera.

There are also omissions. An 8-word phrase ("in any century in which he was born") is just dropped from p. 115. A whole 3-line sentence is skipped over on p. 117.

I don't understand how the reader could have made so many mistakes and then just called it good rather than re-recording to fix it. Obviously some of them are almost inconsequential, while others (getting a year wrong by 100 years) matter a lot more. But the standard for accurately reading what's on the page should be pretty high.

Other reviews took issue with the cadence and/or voice of the performer. I had no issues, but I also listened at 2x speed, so YMMV.

Fasten your seatbelts...

...it's going to be a bumpy ride!

I read more than a few reviews of this title complaining about the narrator. To be honest, at first I was a little put off by the narration, but I thought -- you know, she kinda sounds like Sister Wendy Beckett. Somehow, making that association clinched it for me.

As for the book itself, it's a treasure trove of research, masterfully laid out. It covers about 150 years of history but also dips further back into early Church history. It is mostly centered around Europe but goes into detail within each country/principality. In addition to religious history, it also touches on political and dynastic changes. The book is scholarly in its depth and breadth but totally accessible to regular readers with an interest in history and religion.

Grand survey of a historic phenomenon

Excellent survey of the reformation and counter reformation across Europe. So much more than Luther.

Interesting perspective and stupendous white noise

Well read. The author is definitely engaged. Really long, but thoughtful research. Different pov sometimes had me thinking it had rewound.