The Cambridge Modern History is a comprehensive modern history of the world, beginning with the 15th century Age of Discovery, published by the Cambridge University Press in England and also in the United States.
The first series, planned by Lord Acton and edited by him with Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, Sir Adolphus William Ward and G. W. Prothero, was launched in 1902 and totalled fourteen volumes, the last of them being an historical atlas which appeared in 1912. The period covered was from 1450 to 1910. Each volume includes an extensive bibliography.
A second series, with entirely new editors and contributors, The New Cambridge Modern History, appeared in fourteen volumes between 1957 and 1979, again concluding with an atlas. It covered the world from 1450 to 1945.
Planning and publishing
The first discussions about creating The Cambridge Modern History took place in 1896.
The original Cambridge Modern History was planned by Lord Acton, who during 1899 and 1900 gave much of his time to coordinating the project, intended to be a monument of objective, detailed, and collaborative scholarship.'John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton (English historian and moralist)', in Encyclopædia Britannica Acton was Regius professor of modern history at Cambridge, and a fellow of All Souls, Oxford. He had previously established the English Historical Review in 1886 and had an exalted reputation.R. C. S. Trahair, From Aristotelian to Reaganomics: a dictionary of eponyms with biographies in the social sciences (1994), p. 5
The new work was published in fourteen volumes between 1902 and 1912, in the British Isles by the Cambridge University Press and in the United States by Macmillan & Co. of New York City. Written mostly by English scholars, the first twelve volumes dealt with the history of the world from 1450 up to 1870. The final volume, numbered 12, was The Latest Age and appeared in 1910. There then followed two supplemental volumes.
The history was later followed by similar multi-volume works for the earlier ages, namely the Cambridge Ancient History and the Cambridge Medieval History.Leslie Bethell, The Cambridge history of Latin America: Latin America since 1930 (vol. 6), p. 11 As the first of such histories, it later came to be seen as establishing a tradition of collaborative scholarship.Roberto González Echevarría, Enrique Pupo-Walker, 'Introduction', in The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature vol. 2 (1996), p. xvii: "The Cambridge history of Latin American literature draws upon a long tradition of collaborative scholarship that began with the Cambridge modern history (1902–1912)..."
A second edition of the atlas (volume XIV) was published in 1924.William Robert Shepherd, Historical Atlas (1964), p. iv
Volumes published I. The Renaissance (1902) ChapterTitleAuthorIntroductory NoteMandell Creighton1The Age of DiscoveryEdward John Payne2The New WorldEdward John Payne3The Ottoman ConquestJohn Bagnell Bury4Italy and her InvadersStanley Mordaunt Leathes5Florence (I): SavonarolaEdward Armstrong6Florence (II): MacchiavelliLaurence Arthur Burd7Rome and the Temporal PowerRichard Garnett8VeniceHoratio Robert Forbes Brown9Germany and the EmpireThomas Frederick Tout10Hungary and the Slavonic KingdomsEmil Reich11The Catholic KingsHenry Butler Clarke12FranceStanley Mordaunt Leathes13The NetherlandsAdolphus William Ward14The Early TudorsJames Gairdner15Economic ChangeWilliam Cunningham16The Classical RenaissanceRichard Claverhouse Jebb17The Christian RenaissanceMontague Rhodes James18Catholic EuropeWilliam Francis Barry19The Eve of the ReformationHenry Charles Lea
II. The Reformation: The end of the Middle Ages (1903) ChapterTitleAuthor1Medicean RomeFranz Xaver Kraus2Habsburg and Valois (I)Stanley Mordaunt Leathes3Habsburg and Valois (II)Stanley Mordaunt Leathes4LutherThomas Martin Lindsay5National Opposition to Rome in GermanyAlbert Frederick Pollard6Social Revolution and Catholic Reaction in GermanyAlbert Frederick Pollard7The Conflict of Creeds and Parties in GermanyAlbert Frederick Pollard8Religious War in GermanyAlbert Frederick Pollard9The Reformation in FranceArthur Augustus Tilley10The Helvetic ReformationJames Pounder Whitney11Calvin and the Reformed ChurchAndrew Martin Fairbairn12The Catholic SouthWilliam Edward Collins13Henry VIIIJames Gairdner14The Reformation under Edward VIAlbert Frederick Pollard15Philip and MaryJames Bass Mullinger16The Anglican Settlement and the Scottish ReformationFrederic William Maitland17The Scandinavian NorthWilliam Edward Collins17 AddendumNote on the Reformation in PolandStanley Mordaunt Leathes18The Church and ReformReginald Vere Laurence19Tendencies of European Thought in the Age of the Reformation'Andrew Martin Fairbairn
III. The Wars of Religion (1904) ChapterTitleAuthor1The Wars of Religion in FranceArthur John Butler2French Humanism and MontaigneArthur Augustus Tilley3The Catholic Reaction, and the Valois and Báthory Elections, in PolandRobert Nisbet Bain4The Height of the Ottoman PowerMoritz Brosch5The Empire under Ferdinand I and Maximilian IIAdolphus William Ward6The Revolt of the NetherlandsGeorge Edmundson7William the SilentGeorge Edmundson8Mary StewartThomas Graves Law9The Elizabethan Naval War with SpainJohn Knox Laughton10The Last Years of ElizabethSidney Lee11The Elizabethan Age of English LiteratureSidney Lee12Tuscany and SavoyEdward Armstrong13Rome under Sixtus VUgo Balzani14The End of the Italian RenaissanceArthur John Butler15Spain under Philip IIMartin Hume16Spain under Philip IIIMartin Hume17Britain under James ISamuel Rawson Gardiner18Ireland to the Settlement of UlsterRobert Dunlop19The Dutch RepublicGeorge Edmundson20Henry IV of FranceStanley Mordaunt Leathes21The Empire under Rudolf IIAdolphus William Ward22Political Thought in the Sixteenth CenturyJohn Neville Figgis
IV. The Thirty Years War (1906) ChapterTitleAuthor1The Outbreak of the Thirty Years' WarAdolphus William Ward2The ValtellineHoratio Robert Forbes Brown3The Protestant Collapse (1620–30) (1) The Bohemian and the Palatinate War (1620-3) (2) The Lower-Saxon and Danish War (1623-9) (3) The Edict of Restitution and the Dismissal of Wallenstein (1628–30)Adolphus William Ward4RichelieuStanley Mordaunt Leathes5The Vasa in Sweden and Poland (1560–1630)William Fiddian Reddaway6Gustavus Adolphus (1630–2)Adolphus William Ward7Wallenstein and Bernard of Weimar (1632–5) (1) Wallenstein's End (1632-4) (2) Nördlingen and Prague (1634-5)Adolphus William Ward8The Constitutional Struggle in England (1625–40)George Walter Prothero9The First Two Years of the Long Parliament (1640-2)George Walter Prothero10The First Civil War (1642-7)George Walter Prothero, andErnest Marsh Lloyd11Presbyterians and Independents (1645-9)George Walter Prothero, andErnest Marsh Lloyd12The Westminster AssemblyWilliam Arthur Shaw13The Later Years of the Thirty Years' War (1635–48)Adolphus William Ward14The Peace of WestphaliaAdolphus William Ward15The Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649–59)William Arthur Shaw16The Navy of the Commonwealth and the First Dutch WarJoseph Robson Tanner17Scotland from the Accession of Charles I to the RestorationPeter Hume Brown18Ireland from the Plantation of Ulster to the Cromwellian Settlement (1611-1659)Robert Dunlop19Anarchy and the Restoration (1659–60)Charles Harding Firth20The Scandinavian North (1559-1660)William Fiddian Reddaway21MazarinStanley Mordaunt Leathes22Spain and Spanish Italy under Philip III and IVMartin Hume23Papal Policy, 1590-1648Moritz Brosch24Frederick Henry, Prince of OrangeGeorge Edmundson25The Transference of Colonial Power to the United Provinces and EnglandHugh Edward Egerton26The Fantastic School of English PoetryArthur Clutton-Brock27Descartes and CartesianismÉmile Boutroux
V. The Age of Louis XIV (1908) ChapterTitleAuthor1The Government of Louis XIV (1661–1715)Arthur James Grant2The Foreign Policy of Louis XIV (1661–1697)Arthur Hassall3French Seventeenth Century Literature and its European InfluenceÉmile Faguet4The Gallican ChurchStafford Harry Northcote (Viscount St Cyres)5The Stewart RestorationCharles Harding Firth6The Literature of the English Restoration, Including MiltonHarold Hannynston Child7The Administrations of John de Witt and William of Orange' (1651–88)George Edmundson8 (1)The Anglo-Dutch Wars: Naval Administration under Charles II and James IIJoseph Robson Tanner8 (2)The Anglo-Dutch Wars: The Wars (1664–74)Christopher Thomas Atkinson9The Policy of Charles II and James II (1667–87)John Pollock10 (1)The Revolution and the Revolution Settlement in Great Britain: England (1687-1702)Harold William Vezeille Temperley10 (2)The Revolution and the Revolution Settlement in Great Britain: Scotland from the Restoration to the Union of the Parliaments (1660-1707)Peter Hume Brown10 (3)The Revolution and the Revolution Settlement in Great Britain: Ireland from the Restoration to the Age of Resumptionn (1660-1700)Robert Dunlop11Religious Toleration in EnglandHenry Melvill Gwatkin12Austria, Poland, and TurkeyRichard Lodge13The Treaties of Partition and the Spanish SuccessionWolfgang Michael14 (1)The War of the Spanish Succession: Campaigns and NegotiationsChristopher Thomas Atkinson14 (2)The War of the Spanish Succession: the Peace of Utrecht and the Supplementary PacificationsAdolphus William Ward15Party Government under Queen AnneHarold William Vezeille Temperley16Russia (1462–1682)John Bagnell Bury17Peter the Great and His Pupils (1689–1730)Robert Nisbet Bain18The Scandinavian KingdomsWilliam Fiddian Reddaway19Charles XII and the Great Northern WarRobert Nisbet Bain20The Origins of the Kingdom of PrussiaAdolphus William Ward21The Great Elector and the First Prussian KingAdolphus William Ward22 (1)The Colonies and India: The ColoniesErnest Alfred Benians22 (2)The Colonies and India: IndiaPaul Ernest Roberts23 (1)European Science in the Seventeenth and Earlier Years of the Eighteenth Century: Mathematics and Physical ScienceWalter William Rouse Ball23 (2)European Science in the Seventeenth and Earlier Years of the Eighteenth Century: Other Branches of ScienceMichael Foster24Latitudinarianism and PietismMoritz Kaufmann
VI. The Eighteenth Century (1909)