ABSTRACT
To make time periods more understandable, historians coin phrases that bring certain aspects of an era into sharper focus. This Zeitgeist or “spirit of the times” approach includes such labels as “Golden Age of Greece,” “Medieval Period,” “Renaissance,” and “Reformation.” Labels for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries include: “Age of Absolutism,” “Age of Enlightenment,” “Age of Reason,” and “Scientific Revolution”. Those stressing the monarchical nature of European politics with the common belief in the divine right of kings have favored the image of absolutism. Others have emphasized intellectual developments that replaced a priori deduction with inductive experimentation, a substitution that led to major economic and industrial changes. Economic power in the hands of bourgeois businessmen shifted from Italy and southern Europe to northern Europe and finally to England, where the Industrial Revolution was beginning.
