author
Preserved Smith
1880–1941
A leading American historian of the Protestant Reformation, he wrote with unusual range and clarity about Martin Luther, Erasmus, and the upheavals of sixteenth-century Europe. His books helped bring complex religious history to a wider audience without losing their scholarly depth.
1 Audiobook
The Age of the Reformation
by Preserved Smith
About the author
Born in Cincinnati in 1880, Preserved Smith became one of the best-known American historians of the Protestant Reformation. He studied at Amherst College and earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1907, later continuing his work in Paris and Berlin. His background was deeply academic: his father, Henry Preserved Smith, was a prominent Old Testament scholar.
Smith taught history at Amherst College before later lecturing at Cornell University. He built his reputation through major works on Reformation Europe, including studies of Martin Luther and Erasmus, and he was especially noted for The Age of the Reformation, a wide-ranging one-volume history of the sixteenth century.
Remembered for combining careful scholarship with readable prose, he helped English-language readers understand one of Europe's most turbulent and transformative eras. He died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1941.