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Synopsis

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill – and be killed – for their faith, the reformation tore the western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch’s history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars and politicians, from the zealous Luther to the radical Loyola, from the tortured Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

Weaving together the many strands of reformation and counter-reformation, ranging widely across Europe and even to the New World, MacCulloch also reveals as never before how these upheavals affected everyday lives – overturning ideas of love, sex, death and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age. 

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘Monumental … Reformation is set to become a landmark’ 
Lisa Jardine, Observer

‘A triumph of human sympathy’ 
Blair Worden, Sunday Telegraph

‘From politics to witchcraft, from the liturgy to sex; the sweep of European history covered here is breathtakingly panoramic. This is a model work of history’ 
Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year

‘A masterpiece of readable scholarship … In its field it is the best book ever written’ 
David L. Edwards, Guardian

‘A historical tour de force … He shows how the Reformation was about much more than religion and politics. It was about what kind of bell-ringing you heard, or whether your neighbours noticed your reading habits, about attitudes to the family … breathtaking’ 
Daniel Johnson, Daily Telegraph

‘A milestone book … A masterpiece of learning, and yet written with a disarming lightness of touch’ 
Andrew Pettegree, The Times Literary Supplement

‘Dazzling’ 
Michael Howard, The Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

‘Reviewers reach too easily for the adjective “magisterial”, but few historical works of recent times can have earned it as securely as Diarmaid MacCulloch’s vast survey … This is a sharply perceptive and beautifully organized book, lit by a delicious wit and identifying, amid the rich detail, large patterns of development and contrast’ 
Blair Worden, Sunday Telegraph

‘There are moments of sheer pleasure – unforced flashes of wit and unforgettable stories, such as those of the “miracle of the Puritan mice” in Boston in 1640 … MacCulloch’s well-paced style makes the book seem half its length’ 
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Sunday Times

‘MacCulloch’s declared aim is to describe the Reformation to a world which has largely forgotten or half-understood what it was about. He succeeds triumphantly’ 
Ian McIntyre, The Times, Books of the Year

‘A magisterial and eloquent book. Diarmaid MacCulloch is uniquely able to communicate the religious passions of the past to the unbelief and indifference of the present’ 
David Starkey

‘A blockbuster history … MacCulloch keeps the narrative fizzing with sharply observed detail and a sardonic wit … no other history of the Reformation covers so much, so authoritatively, and so entertainingly’ 
Eamon Duffy, BBC History Magazine

‘A marvel: lucid, humane, enormous, eloquent and alive’ 
Adam Nicolson, Evening Standard, Books of the Year

‘Superb … recounted as grippingly as a novel … MacCulloch brings the history of those upheavals, collectively known as the Reformation, into vivid focus, providing what must surely be the best general account available … He illustrates the deep reasons why people were prepared to kill and die over such matters as whether bread can metamorphose into God’ 
A. C. Grayling, Financial Times

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