As the Renaissance ended in Europe, the Western world experienced a long series of cataclysmic events that still reverberate in modern society. The Golden Thread, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West, by Allen C. Guelzo, explores those events and traces their consequences up through the twentieth century. The volume begins in 1500 when the Protestant Reformation ended the Roman Catholic Church’s dominance over European states. It then turns to the swift rise of European imperial powers and to the explosion of the intellectual, economic, and technological advancements of the Enlightenment. These were moments of flourishing in Western civilization, but also moments of uncertainty. They portended the violent upheavals that shook continental Europe and the Americas during the American, French, and Bolívarian Revolutions as well as the Napoleonic Wars. The Industrial Revolution, the Romantic revolt against the Enlightenment, and a second wave of scientific advancement in the nineteenth century all challenged any attempt to restore the classical unity of the West. A radically redrawn world emerged from these developments, one that was ill-prepared for the colossal physical and moral shocks of the First and Second World Wars. In closing, the volume examines how Western civilization has, in our own time, remained remarkably resilient in the face of secular totalitarianisms, laying the foundations for material prosperity around the globe. Volume II engages with the most significant questions facing the West today. The Golden Thread is a two-volume history of the Western tradition. Volume I is authored by James Hankins; Volume II, covering the modern and contemporary West, is authored by Allen C. Guelzo. Allen C. Guelzo is the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He is the best-selling author, most recently, of Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment. He is a three-time winner of the Lincoln Prize.