Jacob Burckhardt – The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Burckhardt, one of the 19th century’s greatest historians, coined the term “Renaissance.” He has an eye for larger themes, from the period’s rediscovery of Greek and Roman classics to the growing importance of international trade and cultural and intellectual exchange. He also gives plenty of attention to the Renaissance’s emphasis on the individual and free will, and its rejection of the notion of people being links in a greater Chain of Being, in which they are to play an assigned role in the social category into which they were born.
Inertia Wins! 