This book presents a collection of twelve seminal essays by Czech historians on the history of the Czech lands from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, which originally appeared in Czech publications as articles and book chapters and are translated here for the first time in English. The essays address a broad range of topics, including politics, religion, demography, everyday life, crime, and rural and urban society. By bringing to English-speaking readers the rich history and historical writing of the Czech lands through the lens of Czech historians, the book seeks to expand knowledge about the place of these lands in late medieval and early modern Europe, and the rich mosaic and shared history of the peoples and cultures of Europe.