A concise and lively survey that introduces students to the people, ideas, and conflicts in European history from the Thirty Years' War to the Napoleonic Era. The authors draw on new work in gender studies, environmental history, anthropology and cultural history to illustrate the animating force of the period: the assumption that the world could be made amenable to human reason, though precisely how this was to be done remained highly contested. The nature of those contests -- in politics, culture, and society -- is traced throughout the book. The work includes discussions of developments in science, art, and literature. A chronology of people and events concludes each chapter and there is a glossary of key terms at the end of the book.