Can't say. I keep running out of time on your app to listen to the book. I didn't get a chance to hear it so I can't really comment except to say how much I don't like this Netgalley app.

I did not discover Wyman via his podcast but I'm certainly going to track it down now! I imagine it will be an invaluable resource for a historical fiction like me. Wyman narrated his own book and this was a good choice - he knows his subject and what exactly to stress.



The book itself was a fascinating look at four decades during the renaissance which shaped much of European economy, trade and business. I got nerdily excited over Henry IV's account book a while back so the sort of records and details included her were just catnip for me. From Isabelle of Castille to local (to me) Moreton in the Marsh yeoman, John Heritage, this book was a lively and informative look at a brief, turbulent time that had a hand in shaping capitalism as we know it today. Highly recommend.

I received The Verge audiobook as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

In The Verge, historian and podcaster Patrick Wyman explores four decades of early modern history that paved the way for the world in which we live today. By profiling a series of leaders in politics, commerce, and religion, Wyman explores these transformational years and the tremendous effect they had on the world around them.

As a longtime listener to Tides of History and The Fall of Rome, I was excited to experience a full-length book from Patrick. Fans of Tides will hear about some familiar figures from the podcast, but in a more in-depth and contextualized way, and having a single figure to use as a symbol for certain trends or changes was a useful device. If you're a fan of the podcast or early modern history in general, The Verge is a must-read. (One logistical note: I may be nuts, but I swear that there were some passages repeated in the Ferdinand and Isabella section (tracks 2-3). I don't mess with tracks or rewind/fast forward in my audiobooks, but there were definitely things I heard twice.)