A book review from The Movie Snob:

The Reformation: A History, by Diarmaid MacCulloch (2003). As in, the Protestant Reformation. At a mere 683 pages (of text; 792 including notes and index), this book may strike fans of Bill Clinton's recent autobiography as being a lightweight work, but it was plenty big enough to start me on the road to carpal-tunnel syndrome. Anyhoo, I quite enjoyed this work of popular history. The first 100 pages give the political and cultural context in Europe leading up to the outbreak of the Reformation in 1517. The next 430 are a traditional historical look at the major players and events from 1517 until about 1700. And the last 150 are an examination of the effect of the Reformation on the culture, in matters ranging from the treatment of witches to attitudes regarding sex and marriage. The author is well-suited to write an objective study, describing himself in the forward as the descendant of a long line of Scottish Epsicopalian clergy but being himself someone who does "not now personally subscribe to any form of religious dogma." He does a good job of trying to present the controversies of the era as the participants understood them, with little 21st century editorializing.