I decided to read MacCulloch's very large and imposing history of the Reformation because it seemed that a book of such size (or rather, since I bought the Folio edition, two volumes of such size) must provide some in-depth analysis and insight.

I was wrong. Not only was the book a very superficial treatment of the subject (i.e., telling me very little I didn't already know), but it also contained some very gross mischaracterizations of history. MacCulloch seems to try to view everything through the lens of religion, and while I might forgive him for characterizing the Thirty Years' War as a war of religion, given that religious attitudes were probably the primary cause of the war, there is absolutely no way - let me repeat this: no way - that one can characterize the War of the Spanish Succession as a war of religion.

The other serious problem that I have with MacCulloch is his apparent fixation with making sure that he doesn't offend anyone. It's the fucking history of the fucking Reformation, you retarded fucking piece of shit! It is about how people argued and fought, and then started killing each other, over the finer points of Christian doctrine (and with total disregard for the central message of Christianity, I might add). If you aren't willing to wade into the shitstorm and get a little dirty your book is going to end up a useless, sterile exercise in writing and Christ will spit you from his mouth because you are neither hot nor cold (Rev 3:16). Unfortunately, MacCulloch lives in some little politically correct vacuum. He takes pains to explain to the reader that he calls the British Isles the "Atlantic Isles" because apparently he fears some thin-skinned Irishmen are going to take offense and beat the crap out of him. I should have not read any further at that point, knowing that the author was going to try to walk on eggshells about the Reformation.

The end result is that, although he does superficially discuss the actual issues of the Reformation, much of the book reads like a seventh-grade "World Cultures" textbook, where every strain of thought is valid to an extent, diversity must be praised at every turn where it does appear and the entire thing reads in a very bland way.

There was very little analysis, and the analysis that I did see appeared to be applying very specious logic indeed. I'm not sure whether I just expect too much from what seems to have been a general history, or whether this is really what general history has come to.

The book is probably useful for people who have no idea what the Reformation was or what happened in Europe from 1500-1700, particularly if such people enjoy being misled about the extent to which religion was the driving force of everything in that period (and partially beyond - after all, the War of the Spanish Succession started in 1701, and apparently was a further war of religion between Protestant England and Catholic France, if the reader will just conveniently ignore that Catholic Savoy and Austria teamed up with Protestant England in order to put a Catholic Habsburg on the throne of Spain instead of a Catholic Bourbon).