The Verge

The creator of the hit podcast series Tides of History and Fall of Rome explores the four explosive decades between 1490 and 1530,bringing to life the dramatic and deeply human story of how the West was reborn. In the bestselling tradition of The Swerve and A Distant MirrorThe Verge tells the story of a period that marked a decisive turning point for both European and world history. Hereauthor Patrick Wyman examines two complementary and contradictory sides of the same historical coin: the world-altering implications of the developments of printed mass mediaextreme taxationexploitative globalizationhumanistic learninggunpowder warfareand mass religious conflict in the long termand their intensely disruptive consequences in the short-term. As told through the lives of ten real people–from famous figures like Christopher Columbus and wealthy banker Jakob Fugger to a ruthless small-time merchant and a one-armed mercenary captain–The Verge illustrates how their livesand the times in which they livedset the stage for an unprecedented globalized future. Over an intense forty-year periodthe seeds for the so-called \