From the start, "The Renaissance: Explore the Astonishing Rebirth of European History" was not written by anyone with authority in the field of historical analysis. In this review I will not talk about spelling errors or formatting errors. The author, of unknown name or credentials, takes the reader on a survey of different historical personages, events, and inventions. On a small scale, information on these individual topics might be based on truth. The author does keep the reader entertained.

Yet, the author shows a clear lack of understanding in historical methodology. The Renaissance cannot be understood as one monolithic movement. The movement affected different city-states, nations, and people differently at different times. The Florentine Rennaissance treated individuals differently than the tuscan or northern Renaissance. The author also takes liberties with the periodization of the historical subject. Martin Luther was not a Renaissance figure. The work is an extremely subjective piece written by someone who seemingly has never taken a course on the Renaissance, only getting snapshots from documentaries.

If someone is looking for a credible historical text, this is not it. I would suggest award winning historians such as Peter Burke or Nancy Struever. ( )

I received this book as a review copy via LibraryThing.I have the basic Kindle,as I find for reviews it really sorts out what the reader can see at the most basic level. I read the .mobi verstion. Firstly this is a brief introduction to The Renaissance, gathering data from a range of sources and aiming to be all things to all people - or at least all preteens and YAs. Some of the resource material dated back to 1932, and none of the sources are cited within the book itself, just at the back. In a printed form this book almost certainly has illustrations, but there are none in the Kindle version I had, and no uplinks to the Internet to see what the text refers to. Again in a printed book I am sure the text would wrap around pictures. For example in Chapter 13, the description of the printing press- there is the description of creating each letter on an individual bar "...rectangular bars of steel which is heated and cooled. The leftover shreds are brushed away, so the letter stands out in relief..." The use of the present tense is incorrect unless the text refers to an illustration.

Overall, the editing of this book is incredibly poor. I am certain if it were put through Grammerly or some other mechanical editing process it would have flowed better, for participles were split, tenses were mixed up sometimes in the same sentences and in several cases the meaning of the sentence or the paragraph was confusing. When looking at the Chapter on Copernicus: Chapter Eleven Science, Nicolaus Copernicus; Astronomer and Mathematician, confusion can easily arise from the following paragraph: "Around the year1543, Nicolaus Copernicus (1483 - 1543) Lived in Warmia in Northern Poland (known as "Prussia" at the time). Copernicus developed the theory of heliocentrism which is the belief that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the Solar System.That was highly controversial because it appeared to contradict some of the passages in the Bible."
This somewhat garbled fact filled paragraph, allows the reader to become confused - Copernicus died in the same year that he developed his theory of heliocentrism? Well no, He died in the same year he PUBLISHED his theory of heliocentrism, a theory he had been working upon for some time 1514 or thereabouts he made pamphlets (small booklets outlining his theory in its early stages) to his friends, and by 1532 he had completed the work which he was aware may brand him a heretic in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The only way to get the church on his side and prevent arrest, imprisonment and a potentially painful death for heresy was for the Pope himself to agree heliocentrism was potentially correct. In 1533, still ten years before the death of Copernicus, The private secretary of Pope Clement VII gave the pope and some of his cardinals a lecture upon the theory which impressed some of the attendees positively. The published theory was dedicated to Pope Paul III, and it was reported that he died on the day he first held the completed work in his hands. (See Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus).

The data within this book is not incorrect, it is simply messy and curiously put together. The final chapter on William Shakespeare, provides snippets of information but again in a confusing manner. For example having mentioned his town of birth - Stratford-on-Avon, for no reason the Paragraph continues "... 'Avon' just meant a shallow river. There was a bridge there, called Clopton Bridge, which served as a means by which vendors and other merchants could get their goods to market.
The town had a huge market that operated every day but Sunday. At this time, England hadn't progressed as much as some of the other European countries, and it still nurtured a feudal-like society with a lord of the manor who owned over two hundred houses in Stratford..." And so it continues. One glaring mistake is the statement: "Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was twenty-six and she was eighteen", In this instance the ages are reversed and Anne was the older at 26 years old. However, the coy statement that the two started a family "immediately" covers the truth that Anne was 3 months pregnant when she married.
Overall, this book requires serious editing and fact checking. Compacted History states in the copyright section that "We strive to keep the information up-to-date to the best knowledge of the author (unnamed) and publisher; the materials contained herein is (sic) factually correct. neither the publisher nor author will be held responsible for any inaccuracies" Unfortunately, that is just not good enough. Until this occurs not only do I not recommend The Renaissance, I do not recommend any other title by Compacted History as they too may be of a similarly low standard. ( )