Reddit reviews Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700

Not interested. You should read up on the actual reformation. It's a fascinating time in history. I recommend this book. It's a bit heavy at times, but the subject matter carries it through.

The middle east is not OK. Religion, factionalism, western interference, the Palestine situation and much more have wrecked the place. Not just extremism. How can the Muslim world solve the Palestinian situation on its own? The US and Israel block every bit of progress. Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi are vying for domination..who will back and arm them? And where does Turkey fit in? The Arab spring..genuine movement for freedom or western interference? The rise of ISIS..inevitable or created by the invasion of Iraq? Iran vs Iraq war..who supplied the Iraqis with chemical weapons and satellite images to know where to drop them?

The middle east has many problems. Most are not created specifically by religion, though it doesn't help in many cases either..and its not all Muslim religion.
I'm sure a(nother) reformation in that lot would help, don't you?

So you just want a suggested reading/watching list basically, is that what you’re saying? If so, I would recommend:

Reading about:

• The Medici family of Florence
  
  
• The life and times of Dante Alighieri
  
  
• The life and times of John Dee
  
  
• The Tetrabiblos
  
  
• The Siege of Munster
  
  
• The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre
  
  I would also read:
  
  
• Simone Weill’s Gravity and Grace
  
  
• St Augustine’s [The City of God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_God_(book)
  
  
• Eamon Duffy’s The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
  
  
• Dairmaird MacCulloch’s Reformation : Europe's House Divided 1490-1700
  
  
• Norman Cohn's The Pursuit Of The Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages
  
  
• Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough
  
  I would also definitely give the underrated [Borgias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borgias_(2011_TV_series) TV Box set series a watching - there are lots of good bits in it, but Girolamo Savonarola’s Florence is particularly well done.
  
  Also the actor who plays Machiavelli in that is great, as is the actress who plays Caterina Sforza