Thomas Cahill

Discusses the Renaissance and Reformation from the late fourteenth through the early seventeenth centuries, explaining how the period's artistic and scientific innovations changed the Western world.

How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World

Heretics and Heroes

Nick Gracilla

Apparently I jumped into the midst of Cahill’s history series, and can’t wait to get to the others. Here, he explores the humanist roots to the Renaissance, and the parallel Reformation’s response to corruption, while wheeling through Christopher Columbus’ and Magellan’s adventures (and subsequent genocides) with a sharp turn for the best of art history. Chapter titles like “Nuns with Guns” and wonderfully accessible art criticism make getting through the horrors of the Middle Ages and religious wars penchant for burnings on the stake less shockingly miserable. Highly recommended.

Heretics and Heroes How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Created Our World

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