Book excerpt: This reissue of a classic textbook has been revised and updated with a new introduction by the author. Geoffrey Treasure provides a thoroughly comprehensive account of the European experience at a time when so much of what is today identified as 'modern' began to take shape. Discussing key issues of the period, The Making of Modern Europe, 1647–1980 examines: the evolution of the developing society detailed studies of the people, their environment, attitudes and beliefs economic aspects the growth of the states politics, war and diplomacy religion, intellectualism and science. This work provides an excellent grounding for the study of seventeenth and eighteenth-century European history.