This book is really only for people who don’t know much European history and would like to learn more. I am one of those people, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Wyman focuses on 1490-1530, where really it was all happening in Europe. Martin Luther was hanging stuff on doorways, the printing press was becoming commercial, and royal families were borrowing money desperately from private lenders. Particularly, Wyman does an excellent job at tying this all in together and explaining why all these things happening at the same time created a perfect storm to change Europe so much in such a short time