Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848 - 1914 (European Studies)

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Study though dull at times for non-specialists
Review: I'm a non-specialist who only has a general understanding of European history, but I purchased this item in order to improve my understanding of secularization as social process associated with modernity. For such an aim, this volume is particularly helpful. It perhaps does about as good of a job as I would imagine possible of measuring the process and degree of secularization that transpired in Britain, France, and Germany up until the beginning of the 20th century. What this book says is important: 1)secularization looks different and means different things in different time and places despite the unified character of the phenomenon, 2) it is also the choice of a society conditioned by its historical experience, and therefore 3) it cannot be said to be a consequence of modernity and thus a presupposition thereof.