William Manchester (1922-2004) had an unusual career. He was seriously wounded in battle on Okinawa and went on to earn a master’s degree in English from the University of Missouri. From there he went to work for the famed journalist H.L. Mencken at the Baltimore Sun in 1947. In 1951 he became an editor and…

I’ve recently learned that there aren’t many stellar and readable general overviews of the Renaissance. This one, “The Italian Renaissance” by J.H. Plumb (1961), was first published over half a century ago. However, the fact that a new edition was printed in 2001 speaks volumes for the book’s quality, accessibility, and enduring relevance. “The Italian…

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, theologian, scholar, and writer. He is perhaps the most important and influential scholar and philosopher of the entire Renaissance period, yet he remains today more written about than read, and that’s because his writing is quite abstruse. “Erasmus: A Critical Biography” (1993) by Leon-E Halkin…

“The Renaissance movement was a systematic attempt to go forward by going back.” So writes Peter Burke in his classic analysis of cultural and social dynamics in Renaissance Italy, “The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy” (1964). Burke takes as his point of departure “The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy” (1860) by Jocob…

Permanent diplomacy, featuring resident ambassadors empowered to formally represent their sovereign state and bestowed with certain legal immunities, such as exemption from taxes, tolls, and custom duties, is a modern development tracing its origin back to the city-states of fifteenth century Renaissance Italy. Garrett Mattingly tells the story of these developments in “Renaissance Diplomacy” (1955),…

“The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance” (1955) by German-Jewish emigre Hans Baron is one of the most influential pieces of Renaissance history published in the last century. In it Baron introduces the term “civic humanism,” which has become a core element of contemporary Renaissance studies. While “Crisis” is a dazzling work of scholarship and…