Offers essays by leading scholars on the writing of history globally during the early modern era, from c.1400 to c.1800.

The German and Spanish-speaking worlds have, over the centuries, developed an intrinsic relationship, one which predates the Habsburg dynasty and the Renaissance and baroque periods. The cross-fertilization and challenges have been both fruitful and complex with novel inventions surfacing in one culture often achieving their greatest prosperity in the other: Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation stimulated a response in Spain that was to define the European Counter Reformation; Spanish Baroque writers were seminal in the development of German Romanticism; Carl Christian Friedrich Krause and other nineteenth-century liberals provided the foundation for Spanish reformist efforts on the one hand, while German conservatives like Novalis and Adam Müller inspired conservatvies on the other; the music of Richard Wagner transformed Spanish music and the Spanish stage at the turn of the twentieth century; Pablo Picasso and other artists of the Spanish avant-garde sparkled the enthusiasm of the Germans before the Nazi era. Today, German and Spanish intellectuals and writers share a similar commitment to the creation of a European culture in the face of resistance from other members of the European Union. Viewed from a variety of disciplines this volume explores the relentlessly consistent, albeit often forgotten connections between the two linguistic and cultural groups revealing the myriad of ways in which they have shared and transformed literature, art, culture, politics, and history.

Most historical studies of child labour have tended to confirm a narrative which witnesses the gradual disappearance of child labour in Western Europe as politicians and social reformers introduced successive legislation, gradually removing children from the workplace. This approach fails to explain the return or continuance of child labour in many affluent European societies. Centuries of Child Labour explains changes in past child labour and attitudes to working children in a way that helps explain the continued survival of the practice from the seventeenth through to the late twentieth centuries. Centuries of Child Labour conveys a richer sense of child labour by comparing the experiences of the Northern European periphery to the paradigmatic cases of Britain,and France. The northern cases, drawing heavily on empirical evidence from Sweden, Finland and Russia, test received ideas of child labour, through comparisons with Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Presenting the children themselves as the main protagonists, rather than the law makers, industrialists and social commentators of the time, Marjatta Rahikainen provides fresh information and perspectives, offering revelations to readers familiar only with the situation in France and Britain.

A major reassessment of Philip V's leadership and what it meant for the modern Spanish state Often dismissed as ineffective, indolent, and dominated by his second wife, Philip V of Spain (1700–1746), the first Bourbon king, was in fact the greatest threat to peace in Europe during his reign. Under his rule, Spain was a dynamic force and expansionist power, especially in the Mediterranean world. Campaigns in Italy and North Africa revitalized Spanish control in the Mediterranean region, and the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty signaled a sharp break from Habsburg attitudes and practices. Challenging long-held understandings of early eighteenth-century Europe and the Atlantic world, Christopher Storrs draws on a rich array of primary documents to trace the political, military, and financial innovations that laid the framework for the modern Spanish state and the coalescence of a national identity. Storrs illuminates the remarkable revival of Spanish power after 1713 and sheds new light on the often underrated king who made Spain’s resurgence possible.