Revolution Against Christendom

The Revolution against Christendom by Warren H Carroll, 425 pages

The last of The History of Christendom series to be published in Carroll's lifetime, The Revolution against Christendom begins with the reign of Louis XIV and ends with Waterloo.  The revolution of the title is, of course, the French Revolution, as well as the Enlightenment that produced it and the reign of Napoleon that followed it.

Although this book covers a period nearly as long as that of the previous volume, it is barely more than half as long.  Large sections of text are quoted entirely from other works.  Some chapters are disjointed, fragmentary, or repetitive.  A few are adapted from chapters from other works by the same author.  This is deeply unfortunate, since this is clearly the climax of the series, and an area where Carroll has extensive knowledge (hence the existence of the adaptable chapters).  It is, at least, salvageable as an excellent bibliography for further reading.

(In 2013, the final volume of the series, The Crisis of Christendom, was posthumously published, taking the history up to 2005.  As I do not own it, I will not be reading it in the foreseeable future.)