In this book, William Caferro asks if the Renaissance was really a period of progress, reason, the emergence of the individual, and the beginning of modernity.

• An influential investigation into the nature of the European Renaissance
• Summarizes scholarly debates about the nature of the Renaissance
• Engages with specific controversies concerning gender identity, economics, the emergence of the modern state, and reason and faith
• Takes a balanced approach to the many different problems and perspectives that characterize Renaissance studies