The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914

Penguin History of Europe #7

by Richard J. Evans

A masterpiece which brings to life an extraordinarly turbulent and dramatic era of revolutionary change.

The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about nineteenth-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic transformation. The book aims to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes. It was a time where what was seen as modern with amazing speed appeared old-fashioned, where huge cities sprang up in a generation, new European countries were created and where, for the first time, humans could communicate almost instantly over thousands of miles. In the period bounded by the Battle of Waterloo and the outbreak of World War I, Europe dominated the rest of the world as never before or since: this book breaks new ground by showing how the continent shaped, and was shaped by, its interactions with other parts of the globe.

Richard Evans explores fully the revolutions, empire-building and wars that marked the nineteenth century, but the book is about so much more, whether it is illness, serfdom, religion or philosophy. The Pursuit of Power is a work by a historian at the height of his powers: essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then or now.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, Politics, World History, 19th Century, Audiobook

731 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2016

About the author

Richard J. Evans is one of the world's leading historians of modern Germany. He was born in London in 1947. From 2008 to 2014 he was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University, and from 2020 to 2017 President of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He served as Provost of Gresham College in the City of London from 2014 to 2020. In 1994 he was awarded the Hamburg Medal for Art and Science for cultural services to the city, and in 2015 received the British Academy Leverhulme Medal, awarded every three years for a significant contribution to the Humanities or Social Sciences. In 2000 he was the principal expert witness in the David Irving Holocaust Denial libel trial at the High Court in London, subsequently the subject of the film Denial. His books include Death in Hamburg (winner of the Wolfson History Prize), In Defence of History, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power, and The Third Reich at War. His book The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, volume 7 of the Penguin History of Europe, was published in 2016. His most recent books are Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History (2019) and The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination (2020). In 2012 he was knighted for services to scholarship.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The pursuit of power permeated European society in the nineteenth century. States grasped for world power, governments reached out for imperial power, armies built up their military power, revolutionaries plotted to grab power, political parties campaigned to come to power, bankers and industrialists strove for economic power, serfs and sharecroppers were gradually liberated from the arbitrary power exercised over them by landowning aristocrats…Just as feminists fought for equality before the law, so too in the new world of industry, labor unions went on strike for more power over wages and conditions of work, modernist artists challenged the power of the Academies, and novelists organized their work around struggles for power within the family and other social institutions…”
- Richard Evans, The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914

The Penguin History of Europe asks its authors to perform heroic feats of synthesis. In To Hell and Back, the first book of the series I read (it is number eight in sequence), Ian Kershaw had to cram World War I and World War II into a single volume. That’s quite a task! Any topic within that topic could be worth a book of many hundreds of pages. This job requires not only a brilliant historian and writer, but someone who can streamline and condense, who can choose what needs highlighting, and what can be excised. It is a tall order.

Fortunately, Richard Evans picked up the phone when Penguin came calling.

The Pursuit of Power covers Europe between 1815-1914. That’s a lot of ground to walk. A century is busy, even if it doesn’t contain two gigantic world wars. Not surprisingly, based on his reputation, Evans is up to the challenge.

There are different ways to approach a one-volume history of this type. Kershaw went after the high points, and favored broad strokes over granular details. In this way, he covered two World Wars and the Great Depression in just over 500 pages.

Evans uses a vastly different tactic. He tries to swallow the world. In 716 pages of text, he endeavors to embrace it all. Ninety-nine years of humanity between two hard covers. The politics, the culture, and the economics. The wars, the rebellions, the revolutions, and the regime changes. He introduces world leaders, artists, writers, doctors, and inventors. The famous, the infamous, and the unknown. He traces the changes in technology, and the upheavals of social movements. Evans moves boldly across the map, covering not only the “great powers” but the lesser nations of Europe as well.

This is book is a breathtaking accomplishment. It is also way, way too much.

Evans tries to impose some order by structuring the book thematically. There are eight total chapters, with each chapter subdivided into ten sections. Four chapters focus on political history; two on social and economic history; and two on cultural history. By utilizing theme rather than chronology, there is a lot of moving backwards and forwards through time.

The overarching premise is given us by the title. According to Evans, the “pursuit of power permeated European society in the nineteenth century.” States, governments, armies, revolutionaries, political parties, bankers and industrialists, serfs, women, workers, all vying for power. As theses go, this is not exactly mind-bending stuff. Anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows that it is power – not money or love – that makes the world go around.

Rather than proving some larger point, Evans is offering a panorama of the last years when Europe ruled the world. I learned things that I didn't know could be learned. The sheer amount of factoids Evans dispenses could fill a lifetime of bar trivia nights.

Did you know, for instance, that over a six month period in 1840, English and Scottish factory commissions reported 1,114 cotton mill accidents caused by machinery, resulting in 22 deaths and 109 amputations? Speaking of cotton, the number of cotton spindles in Austria rose from 1.3 million in 1851 to 2 million in 1885 to nearly 5 million in 1913. Meanwhile, pig iron production in the southern provinces of Russia grew from 210,000 tons in 1890, to 1,483,000 tons in 1900. To no one’s great pleasure, the gross number of lawyers rose in England by a distressing 39% between 1851 and 1891. On a more drunken note, 36 million liters of absinthe was consumed by the French in 1910. That’s a lot of green fairies!

From the profusion of pigs in Prussia to the literary nationalism of Boleslaw Prus, seemingly no detail goes unmentioned.

Of course, these are meaningless numbers. Figures and minutiae for me to lose almost immediately. When all is said and done, I may forget more things I learned here than in any other book.

That is one of the issues I had with The Pursuit of Power. It is easy to get overwhelmed, or simply lost, in all the information. I needed a better idea of why this detail mattered. This book is at its best when it tethers events to peoples’ lives, from women seeking the vote to workers seeking fair wages and a workplace that doesn’t maim them. The Pursuit of Power is at its most indigestible when it’s just rattling off abstract production increases. Fortunately, Evans makes a smart choice by beginning each chapter with a detailed biography of a normal (relatively speaking) European whose life emblemized the events to follow. This helps put a face and a name and a life on all these otherwise impersonal events. Still, there were times when the facts and figures become unmoored from humanity, and this started to feel like a reference book.

The Pursuit of Power obviously covers all the major historical moments. It begins after Waterloo, with most of Europe united against the destabilizing influence of revolutionary and Napoleonic France. The status quo ante guillotine did not last. The echoes of the French Revolution reverberated in the many political movements that rattled the crowned heads of Europe, and foretold the end of monarchical rule. The Revolutions of 1848 are a major topic of conversation. In a book sometimes lacking a narrative backbone, the Revolutions and their aftershocks provide a unifying thread. The years after 1848 were marked by social and political trends that led to both democracy and nationalism.

The Pursuit of Power ends on the eve of World War I. It would have been very easy for Evans to have structured this project around that epochal conflict. He could have limited his scope to the political-military-diplomatic machinations of Great Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, as they warily circled each other in the decades leading to 1914. I give Evans credit for eschewing this tactic. Those books have already been written. Evans tries to capture so much more. (And just to be clear, he covers the road to war; he just doesn’t give it his sole attention).

This is an engrossing, erudite, and extremely rewarding book. It is also exhausting. I had to put it down a lot. Its density made it hard to read in big gulps. In many ways it is an achievement. Parts of it are simply spectacular. I especially liked the nonpolitical chapters that focused on advances in science, medicine, and technology. In other ways, The Pursuit of Power falls a bit short. It needed more big-picture touches. It sometimes felt like Evans had placed all these beautiful threads on a loom, but never got around to operating the treadle. Those threads just sit there, waiting to be transformed, to be completed.

Before I go, I leave you with one more nugget. In Lille, France, during the Second Empire, there were 63 drinking clubs, 37 card playing clubs, 23 clubs for bowls, 13 for skittles, 18 for crossbow shooting, and a paltry 10 devoted to archery. I can’t do anything with this information. In a few minutes, it will likely slip into the deep recesses of my brain, to remain dormant, possibly forever. Yet, for a brief, glorious moment, I had this knowledge at my fingertips. And who knows? Maybe in the future, in some distant year, on some random day, the thought will pop into my head, emerging with crystalline brilliance from the fog of the past, unbidden though not unwelcome: For whatever reason, the people of Lille clearly preferred crossbows to normal bows.

I look forward to that day.

(I received a copy of The Pursuit of Power from the publisher in exchange for an honest review)

[Sebastien · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed Richard Evans' series on the Third Reich, I appreciate both his writing style and his analysis. But tbh this latest huge tome of his was a nasty slog for me. Maybe it comes down to the material, especially first half of 19th century European history is less interesting to me? There's a ton of material in this book, lots of info-dumping (maybe this is unavoidable? but it kills flow when you're getting drowned in fact after mind-numbing fact), and at times I guess I got lost with all the various actors and currents and countercurrents. Huge sections where my interest and focus wandered, got bored. And yes, there were sections that shined, for instance I particularly enjoyed the overview on Bismarck. But this didn't make up for slog I had to go through to get to these sections. I do appreciate the depth of research and synthesis of material, and how hard it must be to put together a book on such a vast subject. But sadly in the end it just wasn't my cup of tea.

PS. I listened to the audiobook version of this book. Right after any new figure is introduced/mentioned their birth and death dates are listed. It is shockingly annoying, mostly because there are thousands of people referenced in this book. Sometimes I was rather amused at how annoying I found the listing of these birth and death dates, but seriously, please anyone who listens to the audiobook I'm curious to find out if this stupid little thing drives you as bonkers as it drove me!

[Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breathtaking in width, encyclopedial but sometimes a bit more human touch would have been nice - 4 stars

The Pursuit of Power shows how much of what we think of as normal and the natural way of society only originated, or at least became mainstream, in the time between Napoleon’s defeat and the first World War. Think of anasthetics, prisons, universal sufferage, constitutional monarchy, urban instead of rural society, labour unions, secular healthcare and emancipation movements.

Evans uses an inpressive amount of lenses (economical, societal, diplomatic, technological, colonial, artistic and scientific) to capture the rapid changes occuring between 1815 and 1914. Statistics, statistics and than more statistics crowd out the human perspective in some chapters (especially on agriculture) even though there are lovely and suprising facts and anecdotes to be found in the book.

Like for instance that halfway the 19th century only 3% of people finished their secondary education, that 1/3 of the tax revenue of Russia came from taxation on wodka, that Franz Ferdinand prided himself of the 3.000 deers he shot, that in 1873 the fog in London was so thick animals chocked in an exposition of farm animals and, at the end of a book, an anecdote of a prime minister in the Balkans who was slapped by his king because he confessed that the future queen was also his mistress.

I especially found the chapters about the economy, and how this drove political and societal changes interesting. And what I applaud is that the dark pendant to this, the massive colonial violence in Congno, Namibia, Tasmania and many other European colonies, is given attention at the end of the Pursuit of Power.

What the bird’s eye on history Powers uses does is that everything seems so logical, inevitable. I doubt if it was all so clear for everyone when developments unfolded (if so, why did not everyone do it? Chapter 4 on Economics in that sense felt especially like a lot of talking from hindsight). The feeling Evans gives of an inevitability of progress and emancipation for many classes in society, like people are just sticks in a river flowing casually along, always one way, does not do justice to the people who spend their whole lives for these ideals and only made (from modern day eyes) modest progress.

And sometime the summary and the ongoing listing of people really takes the sight of the depth, impressionism for instance is described in an alinea, and a page onwards we have Gauguin, Van Gogh and post impressionism already done and dusted. I would have liked a bit more focus on some key players, like Queen Victoria, Metternich and Bismarck, but that does goes against the purpose of the Pinguin History of Europe series.

Finally I felt that in the book at the end of the century much more seems to happen than pre 1848, but maybe that is more a thing of availability of written resources and that Europe was than still recovering from Napoleon.

But those are small comments in light of the grand scheme this book achieves: making 19th century European history sweeping and interesting.

[Wick Welker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imperialism, revolution, wash, rinse, repeat.

I’m a big fan of Richard J Evans having read his trilogy about the Third Reich and so I gave this book a try which delves into a large topic: all of European history from 1815-1915. This time period is not my strong suit and I’m glad I read this book. I did find it a tad too ambitious with the ground that is covered but I learned a ton and picked up on some pretty clear patterns through those 100 years that realty influence today the chief of which is that there is constant tension between the aristocracy and the working class and between conservatism and progressivism. Sure these tensions today are different. We’re not as much struggling between monarchy and child forced labor, but the dichotomy is the same today, just a new iteration of it.

This book starts with the Napoleonic Wars which killed about 5 million people. These wars were French imperialism stretching itself across Europe. It killed more proportionally than WWI. 1 in 5 Frenchman died. It cannot be overstated the impact of these wars on Europe and how it shaped everything going forward. After, Bonapartists became liberal nationalists and the wars opened up a way for British imperialism to start rearing its head.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Austria became the most powerful and influential empire at that time as France went on a decline. A holy alliance was made between Austria, Russia and Prussia to quell revolutions. The shift that happened during this time was more cooperation between the European states than the previous century. A liberal revolution seen in France was greatly feared by the European powers and there were no more dynastic wars which happened in the 17th and 18th century. The “State” seemed to have more permanence regardless of who the monarch or aristocracy was. This didn’t happen before the 19th century where arbitrary power was dictated by monarchy not necessarily nationalism or a sovereign state.

Louis the 18th came back in around the 1820s and swore allegiance once again to the Ancien regime, which you know, was supposed to be ousted after the revolution. He kind of tried to erase everything that happened and instituted bicameral legislation but it was still basically a constitutional monarchy. The same thing happened in the German Federation around the same time as well as a conservative monarchy in Spain. Throughout this 1820 time period there were lots of secret societies and liberal revolutionaries like the Decemberists in Russia. If something was happening in one country, it was likely happening at the same time in another country in Europe

Nicholas the First was very interested in expanding the Russian empire and crushing any revolution against him including harsh crack downs in Poland. The Ottoman empire was still quite large at this time and had plenty of influence. There was a Greek revolution against the Ottoman which became a proxy war between Ottoman and Russia. An independent Greek state was eventually formed with the help of England.

Then there was another round of leftist revolutions in the 1830s and the revolutions started to become more “middle class” demanding more suffrage for all men and this revolution became less of a threat to the aristocracy. The peasants weren’t really involved with this until the time that the serf system started to crumble. The serf system was a vital part of the European economy. Some nations eventually emancipated their serfs so that revolution wouldn’t happen there. There were basically serf revolts everywhere, the largest in Moldova where something like 11,000 people died. And then mass famines and death after.

Britain got way ahead of everyone with the textile industry and the industrial revolution. The explosion in cotton in Britain was driven by global trade because it dominated the seas over other countries (kind of like what the US does today: policing water ways for global trade). Britain was also way ahead with coal. A lot of this explains why it outpaced the rest of the countries with imperialization. Now the workers in Britain were probably downright miserable with 14 hr working days and toxic working conditions. Oh and also kids. Child labor was everywhere. The Brits had a robust railway system as well. It took a long time for other countries to catch up with England.

And then more revolutions! 1848 saw widespread mass revolutions all over Europe, especially France, Hungary and Italy. It was the most widespread revolution in Europe to date and was mostly driven by Leftists trying to remove monoarchies. A lot of the later authoritarian movements in the later half of the 19th century were reactionary to the 1848 revolutions.

Then Napoleon the Third came down and he really was the first modern dictator. He was a populist who instituted a centralized bank as well as private funding for railroads. He had a state police that surveilled his people. His parliament didn’t really have legislative power and he used propaganda to try to restore France to its pre-revolution ancien regime dominance.

And then the Crimea War with England, Ottoman Empire, France and Russia. The goal was to maintain Ottoman influence, Half a million were killed. Russia was mostly incompetent and became insolvent and then signed a peace treaty. It was the most destructive war since the Napoleonic Wars and it greatly weakened the Ottoman Empire while strengthening France. The war utterly humiliated Russia and became a catalyst for social reforms and more serfdom emancipation.

And then you got Bismark in Germany who was a monarchical conservative and wanted the Prussia army intact. He ousted Austria from Germany and united a bunch of German states after defeating Napoleon the Third.

From the 1880s onward there was a huge shift in power. The aristocracy became less monarchical and shifted more to the upper class, gaining commercial leverage and becoming the new ruling class. Around the turn of the century, the industrial proletariat was the largest class across Europe. And that was one of the most fundamental changes over this hundred year span: the shift of power away from a small aristocracy to a slightly larger wealthy elite. A lot of this change was driven by labor and serfdom protests which slowly but surely weakened monarchical rule. The industrial revolution drove a ton of this change by slowly giving more leverage to the poor working class where their threats actually meant something.

This book covers a lot of the labor movement at the turn of the century as well as women’s suffrage. A big take home for me reading this book is the dynamic between the conservative elite and the leftist/anarchists who threaten violence and revolution. The Leftists wrench the Overton window from the aristocracy so that, while they still get crushed to death while the elites simply metamorph into a different class, the dial inches more toward labor rights. This dynamic is still very much at play today. Modernity cannot escape history. The same cycles that drive politics and power stay with us today. It’s the same power landscape, just a modern version of it.

[Tristram Shandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Comprehensive and Extremely Readable Overview of Europe in the Fascinating 19th Century

I started Richard J. Evans’s The Pursuit of Power in my last summer holidays alongside the longest novel that William Makepeace Thackeray ever wrote – the Peacemaker wrote quite a number of very long novels –, and that was a mistake: Two major reading projects at the same time are probably best tackled when the days are long, but The Pursuit of Power unfolds such a plethora of information that it was not easy to do justice to this book while at the same time keeping track of the adventures of The Newcomes. That’s why I finally put Evans on the backburner.

When I eventually returned to this book, I experienced times in which I felt unwilling to put it down as well as others when I said to myself that I needed some respite in order to organize the information I gleaned from its pages. All in all, however, I consider this book a major achievement because despite the width of the topic, Evans not only manages to give his account a clear and conclusive structure but he also succeeds in throwing in a lot of seemingly obsessively detailed or anecdotic extra-information, sometimes quite tongue-in-cheek. The book is divided into eight major chapters, half of which focus on a history of (political) events, on wars, revolutions, upheavals, marking the passing of time, whereas two other chapters deal with socioeconomic developments and the two remaining chapters are dedicated to the history of culture and mentality. Each of these chapters is introduced by a vignette that focuses on the life of an ordinary person of the time, mostly generally unknown, with the exception of Emily Pankhurst. Within these chapters, Evans hops from country to country, covering the whole of Europe – but not systematically so, as Ian Kershaw does in his two concluding volumes of the Penguin History of Europe. I can understand anyone who thinks this European history of the 19th century a bit too comprehensive or convoluted but it was both Evans’s excellent style as well as my inveterate interest in this period of time that made the book extremely palatable to me.

Here are some of the fascinating and colourful trivialities that make Evans’s account so appealing and vivid and that tend to cling to the reader’s memory more successfully than a description of the overall structures and developments:

- The Battle of Gisikon (23 November 1847), fought during the Swiss Civil War from 1843-47, was the last pitched battle ever to involve the Swiss army but also the first one in which ambulances, drawn by horses, took the wounded off the battlefield.

- The Battle of Solferino on 24 June 1859, during the Second Italian War of Independence, was the last battle in which the military forces pitted against each other were directly commanded by their respective sovereigns. Franz Joseph I. led his troops against Napoleon III., who did not cut such a bad figure during this battle after all.

- The Hungarian politician Lajos Kossuth taught himself English from the works of Shakespeare, which must have given his English a very poetical note. He was also the one to make the first recording ever in the Hungarian language.

- The famous, or infamous Lola Montez was in fact an Irishwoman named Eliza Gilbert, and when King Ludwig I. of Bavaria asked her whether her bosom was real, she immediately ripped off her bodice to self-confidently submit evidence that it was.

- It was Karl Marx who, with regard to Napoleon III., coined the statement that history repeated itself, the first time as a tragedy, the second as a farce.

- The famous saying that revenge is a dish which is best served cold can be attributed to the French writer Eugène Sue.

- When the French general Ramón Narváez, who showed his cruelty in the Carlist Wars, was asked on this deathbed whether he was ready to forgive his enemies, he answered, “I have no enemies – I have shot them all.”

- In Russia, the common people had such an inveterate distrust against potatoes that they referred to them as the “apples of the devil”.

- The Greek dish “lamb klephtiko”, mutton roasted slowly on a pit, originated from Greek brigands (klepths, as in kleptomania), who had to prepare their food in a way as to prevent suspicious-looking smoke from betraying their place of encampment.

- Wearing hats was so common in the 19th century – and, if you ask me, should be so nowadays – that it was well worth a news bulletin by a Berlin paper in 1893 to record that a “hatless man” had been seen wandering the streets of the German capital. It later came out that this man was mentally disturbed.

- The first trains had no glass windows, not even in the first class, so that passengers were covered in soot whenever the train had passed a tunnel.

- In Britain, an Act of Parliament from 1865 restricted the speed of “locomotives” on roads to 4 miles per hour and obliged their drivers to have a man with a red flag precede them on foot. This act was repealed in 1896 when motor cars were allowed to go up to 14 miles an hour. It is to be hoped that German politicians will never get wind of that Act of Parliament from 1865.

- Karl Benz “in a long series of technical experiments patented the battery ignition system, the spark plug, the carburettor, the gearshift, the water radiator and the clutch. In 1886, he presented the world with the first automobile or horseless carriage. After his wife borrowed it without his knowledge and drove it 66 miles to visit some relatives, inventing brake-lining on the way by getting a cobbler to nail leather pads to the brake blocks, Benz added another gear […]”.

- The word razzia means scorched earth and comes from Arabic. It entered many European languages through the French language after Marshal Thomas-Robert Bugeaud razed countless Algerian villages in his ruthless attempts to quell a Sufi rebellion.

Here is another trivial titbit, which made me look into the future with more unease and dark presentiment: In 1909, the British pacifist Norman Angell published a book called Europe’s Optical Illusion, later The Great Illusion, in which he argued that Europe’s economies had become so closely intertwined that war was now out of the question since it had become utterly counter-productive and futile. Only fifteen years later, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey would say, and justly, too, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

Let’s hope that the lamps are not going out again all over Europe …

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quickly realised that this was not the most suitable book for audio, yet I persevered because the period is so turbulent that it makes our contemporary process of social and political change seem rather tame. The book is crammed with detail and dates, which have to be recited after each person (from politician to philosopher, from diarist to monarch) is named, so that it often feels like nothing more than a list of things that happened or what people did without much scope for analysis and evaluation. The assessment is there, Evans is a brilliant historian, and he integrates the immense information needed to cover the wide scope of the book with this own interpretations, but the effect was lost in the listening. If anything, he gives the reader too much, the equal weight given to the tremendous and the trivial undermine the power of both things.

Yet if he hadn't aimed so high, the book might not have included what became my favourite sections. All the highlights of the period are covered, of course, but what about bits like: The Wages of Empire: The Explorers Here we learn about Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823), a circus strong man turned explorer and archaeologist of Egyptian antiquities who was the first European to enter the Tomb of Kings. His horrifying stories include the crushing of mummies while exploring and the theft of their papyri, the wholesale removal of all types of antiquities from throughout Egypt, carving his name in to stone figures so others would know it was his property, as well as fights with rival adventurers and collectors, one of whom was Bernardino Drovetti (1776-1852) who, after finding a cache of 20 vases, crushed half to increase the price of those he kept. As a classicist, these men made me throw up in my mouth just a little, can you imagine what has been lost and destroyed by people like this? Or The Conquest of Nature: Taming the Wild which focuses on the dangerous beasts living in the European wilderness, with wolves the most feared. While largely avoiding people, they would attack if desperate or hungry: 200 people a year were eaten by wolves every year in Russia through most of the century; up to 1900 and beyond, wolf hunting was legal duty in Sweden; wolf packs roamed parts of Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the Balkans, especially the mountainous regions. One wolf in Poland in 1817 was 'accustomed during the late campaigns to living upon the bodies of dead soldiers' and so acquired a taste for human rather than animal flesh. He was eventually shot when he attempted to eat a two year old child who had been fastened to a tree by his father as bait. If this is not the most interesting thing you've read today, I don't know what to say.... It's these vignettes that bring real vibrancy and appeal to what is, for the most part, a very dense, dry read.

Overall, it's a work that reflects the immense amount of research Evens put in, but it fails somewhat in the execution. Other than the chapters noted and the occasional fact that leads to an 'oh that's interesting' moment, the book leaves you with more of a feeling of emptiness that a history book should, like it made you forget more than you learned.

[Boudewijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This renowned British historian shows in this history of Europe in the 19th century that - despite our national differences - our continent has a common history, in which most developments were part of an unifying thread: the quest for power

This book appeared as part seven in the new series Penguin History of Europe, the individual parts of which were written by renowned historians like Mark Greengrass and Ian Kershaw. Part six, written by Tim Blanning, runs from 1648 to 1815 and is called The Pursuit of Glory. Evans (1947) offers a unifying thread: the quest for power, which was sought after by all Europeans, over each other, nature and the rest of the world.

The quest for power had basically two faces. First of all, you can see the century as an elongated struggle for control and self-determination, of the body, of the poor, of women, of workers and from citizens. At the same time, of course, it was the century in which colonial expansion was ideologically supported by imperialism, the century in which nationalism replaced the magic of the kingdom and in which nature with new technology was increasingly subjected to humanity. The struggle for more control of the power and powerlessness and the desire for dominance, oppression and brutal exploitation together form the dynamics that Evans sees as pivotal in the 19th century.

To avoid the impersonality of such a grand overview, a relay of mere evidence of facts and figures, he summons at the beginning of each chapter on a life that is exemplary for the tensions of that time - a recruiting that returns to Napoleons Russia, the early feminist writer Flora Tristan, the popular Swedish writer Fredrika Bremer, Hungarian poet Bertalan Szemere and the British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Those little stories are well written and bring the history of the nineteenth century to life.

Through his approach, Evans shows convincingly that Europe has a common history, in which the individual national histories each have a distinct cultural and political taste and color, but in which most developments are the same. That peace could last for a relatively long time was usually the result of well-defined self-interest; that the rights of unmarried peasants, citizens and minorities were gradually expanded, as well. The ideologies with which colonialism was founded were also commonplace.

And when nationalism is introduced in the second half of the nineteenth century, imperialism is seen as an unwavering European destiny, and racism gains virulence, one goes collectively towards cataclysm. To underline, Evans ends his book with the prophetic verdict of the British Foreign Minister Sir Edward Gray, who in his ministry on August 3, 1914, turns to a friend: "Everywhere in Europe the lights go out and we will not see them inflamed during our lifetime"

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is everything I could have hoped for from the title and was what I expected to find.

A history of Europe following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which are widely seen as an ‘18th Century conflict’ to the start of the First World War which swept away the old world and introduced a new more violent group of states and ideologies. I recently read David Cannadine’s Victorious Century, which focuses on the United Kingdom, 1800-1906, which is also very good, so was naturally drawn to this.

Sir Richard J Evans has tackled a monumental task after being asked by Penguin to cover this period, originally from 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. He rightly, asked Tim Blanning to cover it in his Pursuit of Glory (1648-1815). Evans does not disappoint and provides a sweeping but intimate study of Europe 1815-1914. This history, the ideas, the revolutions both social and technological, the changes in society, geography, to the increase of liberty and suffrage to the decline of wildlife and the countryside. All is covered from attitudes towards women, religion and sex, to racial politics and transformations of art and literature. It’s all here, so one walks away with a full understanding and feeling of this most interesting of periods. If one could swallow this book and remember every letter I would not need another book.

There are however shortcomings, for me any historian would want more intimate knowledge of the subjects addressed. I also question some of the sweeping statements about the cause of WWI, such as the Kaiser’s ‘blank cheque’, which has been overplayed by historians and in recent years rebuffed. Furthermore I found Evans’ left leaning views start to seep in here, therefore for me, it wasn’t entirely unbiased or a fair analysis in places.

Overall he does a great job, in my opinion, much better than Eric Hobsbawn does over this volumes of what he called ‘The Long 19th Century.’ I treated it as something to fill in the gaps of other little know areas, such as what was happening in Finland, Iceland or in some of the social elements, which I find sometimes hard to find material on elsewhere.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard J. Evans' The Pursuit of Power recounts the European century between Waterloo and World War I. Evans (author of The Third Reich trilogy) affords readers a remarkably comprehensive look at post-Napoleonic Europe, teeming with anxious statesmen and traumatized peoples barely recovered from two decades of continental war. And much as the First World War would resolve little or nothing a century later, the Congress of Vienna only put a damper on the most large-scale violence. Thus the continent is racked by periodic revolutions, religious pogroms, nationalist revolts, and even occasional clashes by Great Powers like the Crimean and Franco-Prussian Wars. Evans is able at showing the high politics in this age of nationalism and class consciousness, offering incisive sketches of conflicts from Spain's Carlist Wars and various Balkan clashes to the Revolutions of 1848 and the battles over Italian and German unification. Evans also dramatizes Europe's industrial development, which inevitably resulted in both economic stratification and class resentment; the growth of liberal ideas of democracy and equality which strengthened the positions of working class men, women and religious minorities while antagonizing forces of reaction; increased literacy and artistic ferment, along with the rise of low culture and increased censorship; outbreaks of disease and development of modern medicine and sanitation; the scheming of statesmen and generals and the plight of ordinary Europeans, from Lisbon to Constantinople. Most of this history is familiar in broad strokes, but Evans makes it compelling by eschewing either a top-down approach or a strictly worm's eye view to the 19th Century. Like his works on Nazi Germany it's a formidable synthesis of topics, perspectives and experiences, presented in eminently readable style.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good solid book. It takes a multidisciplinary perspective to trace the arc of European politics from the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo to the outbreak of World War I. The book focuses on important areas, such as the evolution of government structure, economic change (among the most important of which was the role of the peasantry), the growth of information availability (such as newspapers), the working out (or not) of multiethnic countries (such as Austria-Hungary). Some states resisted change more aggressively than others (such as Russia).

The story begins with the states meeting after the end of the Napoleonic era, to try to create a European system that would be stable and that would be conservative. On the political side, the author traces the time from 1815 to the latter 1840s, when cries for greater freedom and more power to citizens (and outbreaks of efforts to overturn governments (e.g., in France) emerged. There was much fear among elites, but--for the most part--a degree of tranquility returned.

Change can be manifest by the arts. Thus, his treatment of music and other arts is nicely related to the political. It provides another dimension to the work.

This is a fine work that covers a lot of territory without getting 5oo far into the weeds.

[Hadrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broad narrative overview of the period after the defeat of Napoleon and before the start of the First World War.

Evans is primarily a historian of Germany, but this single volume is continental. Most places between Scandinavia and the Balkans get a share. Each chapter starts with a single anecdote or personal story - a Napoleonic soldier, a suffragette, a strongman - but Evans transitions this story into broad currents. While on a continental scale certain trends appear across national borders, Evans is also sure to capture the local differences.

Much of the broad outline of events is already known. The second industrial revolution and the rise of smokestack factories; the origins of what we now know as 'public health' and the eradication of disease; feats of engineering and construction that dwarfed anything before; attempts to control the 'natural world' - and also gruesome acts of slaughter and destruction, especially in colonial areas. This was not an age of unstoppable linear progress. Change came unevenly, and there were many losers as well as winners. The aristocracy tended to lose, and they will have few sympathizers today; but those who came to the cities for better pay and an escape from the cruel drudgery of rural poverty found that factory life was not easy.

In the introduction, Evans is sure to bring up those other volumes of narrative history which were an influence. Jürgen Osterhammel, who wrote "The Transformation of the World" (that I also have read) saw this as a period of greater inter-connectivity and globalization. Eric Hobsbawm (that I shamefully have not read) saw more on the rise of modern capitalism and empire. Evans shies away from more explicit discussion at times, but later his assertions can be found in the title - "the pursuit of power". For the poor and dispossessed - from the serfs in Russia to women fighting for the vote - there was a fight for power to control heir lives. For engineers and builders, it was power over nature. For statesmen, it was power over the world; and all of that came to an end in 1914. Evans returns to the old saying in concluding his book, though it is a good one. With the start of the First World War and the deaths of millions across these empires. "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

This is a world that appears distant, or even strange, and much of it is familiar.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers an important but often overlooked period in European history, the century between the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. If asked, most people could probably recall a few events from this time, such as the potato famine in the mid-1840s, the failed revolutions in 1848, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. It was much more than a few isolated events; it was a period of tumultuous change across the continent, and shaped the the modern world as we know it.

Napoleon had precipitated many of the changes. His fall ushered in reactionary political environments in many countries, but some of the systems that had been introduced were to remain. “Everywhere that Napoleon ruled he had replaced encrusted custom and privilege with rationality and uniformity. While the emperor’s armies rampaged across Europe, his bureaucrats had moved in silently behind, reorganizing, systematizing, standardizing. (p. 45)”

However, the other side of Napoleon’s influence was the birth of nationalism in its modern form. “By spreading the principle of popular sovereignty across Europe while at the same time bringing repression, extortion and alien rule, Napoleon had stimulated among educated elites the belief that freedom from oppression could only be achieved on the basis of national self-determination.” (p. 116)

The population of Europe was growing, from around 205 million in 1805 to 275 million fifty years later, but it was also a period of climate instability causing widespread, repeated famines. “In 1845 potato crops collapsed by a catastrophic 87 per cent in Belgium 71 per cent in the Netherlands, 50 per cent or more in Denmark and the southwest German sate of Württemberg, and 30 per cent in Ireland. The blight continued into 1846, but although crops recovered slightly in most parts of Europe, they experienced a further sharp fall in Ireland, where the yield was now 88 per cent below normal.” (p. 156)

One result was mass emigration, the result of famine, labor displacement caused by the introduction of industrial and agricultural machines, and political and religious repression.

Between 1848 and 1855 [Ireland’s] population fell from 8.5 to 6 million, and while much of the decline at the beginning of the period can be ascribed to the famine, the continuing fall, to under 4.5 million by the census of 1921, was almost entirely due to emigration...the bulk of the migrants found their way to the United States – more than three million in all between 1848 and 1921. By 1900 there were more Irish-born men living in the USA than in Ireland itself. (p. 393)

It wasn’t just the Irish, of course. Five million Germans emigrated between 1820 and 1914, and altogether some 60 million people left Europe between 1815 and 1914. The majority – 34 million -- went to the United States, but another 7 million went to Argentina, 5 million to Brazil, and 4 million to Canada.

It was a century of great technological advances, another harbinger of our modern world. In 1827 Benoȋt Fourneyron had turned a water wheel on its side to create a turbine, and within ten years had developed a model which could rotate at 2300 rpm and generate 60 horsepower. Karl Benz was instrumental in the development of self-propelled vehicles, patenting battery ignition, spark plugs, the gearshift, clutch, carburetor, and water radiators. Telegraph lines quickly spread worldwide, including across the oceans, and “by 1871 punters in Calcutta could learn the result of the Derby no more than five minutes after the famous horse race was over.” (p. 440)

Progress was uneven, and some things continued to lag, such as medicine. During the 1853-1856 Crimean war, “on all sides, a high proportion of the men who died in the war died of disease: 16,000 out of 21,000 British fatalities, 60,000 out of 95,000 French, and 72,000 out of 143,000 Russian.” (p. 275) Things did not improve much in the following decades, “In the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1), French surgeons amputated some 13,200 limbs, with a mortality rate among patients of 76 per cent. All of the amputations performed on people wounded during the Paris Commune resulted in death. It was not until 1875 that the first manual of antiseptic and aseptic procedure was published in France.” (p. 474)

Even with considerations as basic as national languages there was much work to do. We all assume that Italians speak Italian, but in fact, it took a long time to reach that point. “Nationalists tried to develop a standard written and spoken language in order to justify their claim to a national identity and national statehood….In Italy it was the Tuscan dialect, commonly employed in princely courts but in 1860 still used for everyday communication by 2.5 per cent of the population.” (p. 545) In Graham Robb’s book The Discovery of France he writes that a hundred years ago the majority of people living in France did not speak or understand Parisian French. And in Germany, which until 1871 was a collection of scattered principalities and city-states only loosely united by language, it was even worse, “if you wanted to buy a potato you would ask for a Kartoffel in north-central Germany, an Erdapfel in the south, a Grumbeer in the west, a Schucke in the north-east, or a Knulle in parts of Saxony and Brandenberg.” (p. 539-40)

Perhaps most significant were the political changes underway. In 1815 only a small fraction of the population were enfranchised, but as the century progressed the vote was given to more and more people, leading eventually to universal male suffrage. Women did not get the right to vote in most countries until after the First World War.

The new voters wanted a more equitable distribution of economic benefits, and they had the numbers to get their way. As a result, one government after another realized that it needed liberalize its policies to accommodate them or face possible violent consequences. “The rise of the welfare state was in essence a response to the growing popularity of left-wing politics, especially among the working class. Conservatives and liberals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could see no greater threat to their political position than that posed by socialism, whose central tenets were diametrically opposed to the priority given by mainstream political parties to the idea of the nation.” (p. 617)

The new political ferment included not just socialism but darker forces from even farther to the Left. “French socialism also had to contend with a powerful rival on the left, namely anarchists. While both wanted, in theory at least, the destruction of the existing order and the creation of a classless society, the socialists blamed inequality and oppression on the class rule of the bourgeoisie, whereas the anarchists blamed the very existence of the state itself. The socialists were prepared to wait for the revolution, whereas the anarchists wanted it immediately.” (p. 626)

And everywhere countries old and new were arming themselves. Once they had carved up Africa and the Pacific the only way to get new colonies was to take them from another, usually European power, so wars and rumors of war were rife. The armament programs reshuffled the balance of power across the Continent. Britain’s closest ally had long been the Hanoverian Germans, which had provided several of its kings, but once Hanover was subsumed by Prussia and the Kaiser began building a great navy, Britain was forced to look elsewhere for allies, eventually forging agreements with their long-time enemy the French.

Even so, old political feelings ran deep and were hard to change. “Up to the early years of the new century Britain regarded above all Russia as its most serious potential enemy, largely because of the ‘Great Game’ in Asia and the continual push of the Russians towards the Mediterranean and the Middle East. France was the subject of similar suspicion, and indeed novels warning the British public about its government’s lack of preparedness for a future war still saw France as the main threat well after 1900.” (p. 778)

All this would lead to stunning miscalculations that would plunge the world into war in 1914, the defining event of the century, which would lead to the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920, the Great Depression of the 1930s, World War II, atomic weapons, and the Cold War. One of the key reasons was that the new generation of politicians knew the Napoleonic wars only as history, whereas their current experience with small wars and colonial conflicts had given them a dangerously misleading appreciation of what was possible politically and militarily.

Flexibility and cunning, the hallmarks of an earlier generation of statesmen, the generation of Bismarck and Cavour; by 1914 they had been replaced by a generation of leaders taught by a quarter of a century of imperialist annexation, wars and conquests that only force mattered, and that the people on the other side were members of an inferior race that would be easy to defeat. Their intransigence was fortified by the belligerence of military leaders and the determination of men on all sides to display the kind of coolness and courage required of men engaging in a duel. (p. 784)

This book ends as Europe plunges off the cliff into global war. The author takes the time to explain the key events of these decades, weaving together the political, economic, social, military, and technological changes that would lead to the advances and traumas of the 20th century. This is an excellent introduction for anyone wanting to bridge the gap between the Battle of Waterloo and the Guns of August.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely know I won’t get this series completed this year as this book weighs in at over 800 pages & it’s book 8 of 9!

The book contains illustrations, maps, a list of further reading & an index, split into 8 chapters which is further broken down into topics relating to the chapter title, a familiar layout.

It would seem my review exceeds the 20,000 characters allowed :) having only been able to post 6 of 8 chapters in my original review...... suffice to say I made a "few notes" along the way as I have done with this series to date, so I'll post the first 5 up for now & see how to play the last 3 (perhaps I can cover them in the replies)

MY Surmised Review......

An overall engaging narrative allbeit in places we are assaulted by a series of names, dates, places moreso than the prior in the series, however his stories of real people within the narrative won me over completely & it's a very enjoyable book in the series. A period Ive studied previously from 1870 - 1949 so some areas are familiar to me but put into context (from 1815 onwards) the period makes much more sense to study/read as a whole. The impact of change/industry/revolution during the period on mankind is immense, socially we change beyond recognition from the 18th century & its this which held my interest throughout.

4.5 stars rounded down to 4 stars..

More in depth Review follows

We open with “The legacies of Revolution” & the opening topic is entitled expectedly “The aftermath of war” & details the carnage wrought by the prior Napoleonic wars. We learn that of the 685,000 troops that marched on Russia only 70,000 returned, that 1 in 5 Frenchmen born in the 1790’s died in the conflict, that proportionally as many died in Europe as did during the first world war, in all, Napoleon’s armies lost 1.5 Million men, that Moscow was laid waste by a scorched earth policy & that Moscow took 30 years of rebuilding (a generation). To compound these figures, famine struck Europe in the ensuing years leaving Europe & its people broken. The author gives a few examples (as above) to illustrate the impact left on Europe, we have a whistle stop tour of various countries & his points are made succinctly, the style of narrative is akin to the prior book in the series & its no surprise that the author’s are indeed colleagues & known to each other. “After Napoleon” is a topic that covers how the world changed after his final defeat & exile at Waterloo, with the freeing of the Americas (Simon Bolivar et al) from the rule of European Empires (Spain for the best part), mostly endorsed by us Brits to open up free trade which we fully exploited. Liberty was the key buzzword; however it wasn’t for the non-Europeans who were still fair game to be subjugated & this is where the powers started to expand their empires (overseas). Further sections (1820’s) retell of rebellions in Italy (Austrian sphere), Poland (Russian sphere), The Greeks, Serbians & Bosnians (Ottoman sphere) – all are very bloody affairs & the retributions severe as the empires strain to keep hold of their regions as ideas & thoughts of revolutionary France filter through the peoples of Europe. Come the 1830’s we have the fall of the restored French monarchy as Charles X abdicates, the creation of an independent Belgium, unrest in Germany as they look to unify along with the 1832 Reform Act in Britain which saves it from escalating civil unrest. It’s a period of changing political landscape where more people want a say in their affairs rather than the ruling elite of prior eras.

Chapter 2 is called “The paradoxes of freedom” & we start with “Lords & Serfs” where the example live of a serf is used, namely Purlevsky from the village of Velikoe in central Russia who was one of the few who could read & write hence the retelling of his story (through his memoirs) by ways to illustrate a serf’s role within Russia of the time which is very engaging & illuminating. Peasant revolts are covered where the 1800’s seem to be rife with them as the aristocracy (landowners) try to hang onto their power by any means possible while the former serfs, who are still really that in principle, try to gain their freedom from the yolk. The majority of issues (examples given) appear to be in Eastern Europe throughout the Ottoman, Austrian & Russian Empires. Its quite a gloomy chapter as further sections tell of “The Great emancipation”, “Winners & loosers”, “Feeding the peasants” and the “Hungry 40’s & beyond”, all tell of the suffering endured by the general populous in this era as they struggle to lift their life away from serfdom. The end of plague epidemics is maybe the only bright light as population levels do start to increase, however impoverishment & famine see many emigrate to the New World.

The Textile revolution is covered showing how factory owners used modern technology to overcome manual labour & the associated higher cost/strike factors. The power of Britain who ruled the waves through this period is supreme as they have a hold over most markets in the cotton industry throughout the world. Factory life is retold, which is grim reading, examples litter the narrative of injuries, associated poor health, social injustice & child labour all against a backdrop of famine..... a serf merely swapping one form of servitude for another it would seem. The next section covers “Coal & Iron” & if you think conditions were bad in the factories....... accidents are rife, the pits full of danger, not only due to unsafe machinery but down to natural elements such as flooding or gas igniting. As the accidents escalate, acts come into place to prevent the Under 9’s from working (it’s ok if yer 10!!) & the working day drops from 16 hours to 14!! The conditions are truly appalling as man’s need for the extraction of natural element exploits the workers fully as seen through the many examples given in the sections, workers in reality having little rights as the owners seek to maximise their profits. But if you think that section is bad wait until you read “Rail, Steam & Speed” which illustrates that with change & advancement comes a human cost as accidents are rife. The British lead the way with the railways & in fact exported most of the technology, engineers, drivers & even labour in creating many European railways which primarily helped to keep it all on the same gauge, bar Russia that is, who were advised by an American engineer. The next section neatly segweighs into “The making of the European Working class” taking us through the fall of the Craft Guilds & the rise of the trade Unions as factories & industry change the working landscape. Its a time of strife & civil unrest as the workers start to align themselves & its during the middle 1850’s that the term “proletariat” or “working class” is born through news print/literature/popular culture of the day. Times are a changing!

“The European Spring” is the heading of chapter 3 which is an intriguing title..... what’s it about? It starts with a female artist Ive never heard of & then a fellah, the same.... come the end of the section we read the name Karl Marx & the chapter’s reason becomes clearer giving the history of those that were forerunners to Trade Unionism, socialism & communism which sprung from the working classes during the Industrial revolution. During the 1830’s & 40’s however the focus is more on “Nationalism & Liberalism” which the next sections covers, naming the notorieties involved in these movements which were mostly aimed at the Habsburg Empire; The Poles wanting their own state, whilst the Czechs & Hungarians purely recognition of their own culture & language, Italy wanting its own state...... all ending in failure until in 1848 “The spectre of 1789” tales of a spectacular collapse of monarchies across all of Europe beginning in France where an under pressure King Louis-Philippe abdicates. Once he abdicates its a domino effect across Germany where Absolutist monarchies are swept away to be replaced by liberal governments, Northern Italy is rife with revolution & uprisings occur almost everywhere, states are forced to grant a constitution with full parliamentary rights. It reaches Vienna & the Prussian leadership is under pressure too. The 1848 revolutions have oft been referred to as the “Springtime of peoples” when optimism was still rife....... “The revolution falls apart” however, tells of the post 1848 period where the Hapsburg Empire puts it’s territories in order, namely the Hungarian uprising but it takes an alliance with Russia to finally quell it. Despite this, change in society & government occurs during this period. “Radicals & reactionaries” takes the story to the Italian states involving the Papal enclave & again the Austrian Empire whilst “The limits of change” wraps up the events around Europe of 1848 in other countries, notably Balkan (Albania & Bosnia) uprisings against the Ottoman Empire, Spanish rebellion along with the non-event in countries like Britain & Sweden who already had Liberal governments in place by this period. The sections do overlap somewhat & there’s a feel of it not quite being orderly in it’s retelling but it held my interest intently.

“The Crimean War” is the first major European war in decades but it is still fought the same way as the prior Napoleonic wars of 50 years ago, with volleys of musket fire & cavalry charges supported by field guns. The Allies consist of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain & a passive Austria against the Russian Empire who was trying to gain access into the Mediterranean with a warm water port, the others keen to stop Russian expansion. The outstanding statistic from this war was the number killed not by warfare but by disease.... around 65% for the Allies & 50% of the Russians.... all for very little gain in terms of territory. The biggest winner was France, in particular Napoleon III who came out of it with prestige whilst the Russians, whose Armies weren’t fit for purpose, underwent an overhaul in their military spanning the next few decades, the Ottomans were labelled the sick man of Europe as industrialisation had passed them by and the Austrians became friendless after turning their backs on the Russians in the conflict who had previously helped them control Hungary in the 1848 revolutions. Onwards we go & we cover the unification of Italy by a chap called Garibaldi (is that the fellah they named a biscuit after you say?) in a section called “success and failure of nationalist cause” where the failure is the Polish equivalent which is wiped off the face of the map by Russia, everybody feels for the Poles but stands by as Russia takes them apart whilst equally all (namely Napoleon III) assist Italy in some way to repel the Austrian Empire & found Italy as a sovereign state. We then move East to Prussia & learn about a chap called Bismarck who leads the way for German unification by first defeating the Danes in the North (Schleswig-Holstein, 1864) with the help of the Austrians, then in turn falls on the Austrians & defeats them with ease, taking territories from them to form the North German Federation C1867 before finally defeating & humiliating France (who had attacked him first) C 1870-71 & securing the Southern German states into their borders completely changing the power base of Europe & storing up resentment through to 1914. In other news..... The Austrian empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire as both sides came to an amicable arrangement within their borders ending years of rebellion. The chapter finishes with “The echoes of revolution” where the years since the 1848 revolutions are summarised covering governments, liberalisation, emancipation of peoples & notably the abolishing of slavery. We end with Karl Marx!

Chapter 4 follows neatly from the prior chapter as the century turns towards “The social revolution” where we have sections like the “fall of the aristocracy” & “The Elite” which identifies that the old noble families of the prior centuries have ventured into being landowners or else married into new monies raised through industry & other endeavours. It is a changing landscape for the elite as us plebs start to climb ladders. Examples are given through the eyes of various notables of the time be they artists, former nobles, military or government. Some is of interest where it’s humanised, whilst at other times it descends into endless names & dates. The author’s becoming a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to his narration! We learn of the British Empires dominance in trade come the mid 1800’s with around 40% of all of the world’s trade going through or involving Britain, which is quite a stat if I do say so myself ol’ bean. However within the next few decades it’s already on the wane as other European states start to invest in new technology & Germany (for one) begins to outstrip the British come the “second Industrial revolution” which occurs with the advent of electricity & the powering of industry. Britain having invested heavily already in plant/machinery sees the owners reluctant to do so again & most of the British innovations of the time our exported to other countries now willing to catch-up..... Germany invests heavily in the sciences whilst Italy & then Sweden make use of Hydro-power based on American technology (used on the Niagara falls) & so use less coal & become cleaner. The other major factor of the time is that less of the population is involved with Agriculture with all the major powers seeing those figures (%’s) half over the decades in the late 1800’s. The ensuing sections cover such aspects as the re-landscaping of cities as the urban population explodes through the late 1800’s giving many examples. The Bourgeois class is born which now includes such professions as engineers & teachers who’ve earned their position through education & graft & not by being born into nobility. It’s this class that grows exponentially & is seen to raise the standards of living throughout the cities & towns which had until then become a sprawling decay full of disease & unsanitary conditions as the influx of workers descended onto the urban areas en masse without having the necessary infrastructure in place. The section “the dangerous classes” though paints a picture of rising crime especially theft in urban areas as peoples mass together. Another section tells of the chronic shortfall in feeding the populous as middle men come into the equation & the shady dealings they get involved with as they supplement food with additives many of which proved to be toxic, it becomes quite a common practice until civil authorities finally outlaw the practice known as “Adulteration” through a series of Acts. We learn of factory life, accidents in the workplace, living standards, life expectancy through a series of examples/figures with coal mining & the match head girls being amongst the most shocking extracts. The chapter ends with “The Great Exodus” which sees millions depart Europe for the shores of the Americas mostly, a trend which starts around the 1848 revolutions & increases through to the start of WWI.

Chapter 5 involves nature, entitled “The conquest of Nature” and covers sections such as “Taming the Wild” & “Mastering the elements” which relay mostly about mans dominance over beast revolving around extinctions & hunting as he slowly deforests much of the wilder regions where the wolf & the Bear used to habitat. Stories of the Wolf & the Bear are relayed including using Bears for man’s entertainment, wildlife parks & the circus too, as well as the more blood thirsty sports of Bull Fighting & Fox hunting. Deforestation is covered in depth, as it’s this period which sees great swaths of Europe transformed from Forested areas to farming land, wood also being the main source of house building at the time along with ship building until Steel was used. The evolvement of winter sports is covered as (mostly) the rich enjoyed the pastimes. The social economy of the section is quite absorbing as it covers many facets, some obvious whilst others give insight into the beginnings of problems for future generations as the land is transformed. “The shrinkage of Space” is an intriguing title where we encounter a rapidly changing world, where at the start of the century man is huddled together in the winter months in isolated settlements struggling to survive & only really travels within his own region for food, goods & even marriage..... come the end of the era, with the advent of so many more modes of travelling, be it via railway, automobile, bicycle, balloon or even via a Zeppelin, (the first flights by man are also covered) he is set free.... A richly detailed section which opens your eyes at the rate of exploration/opportunities for anyone living through this period. The “making of modern time” deals with jus that as the concept of a world synchronised is realised with GMT being established & an international date line set in the remote pacific. Up until then some countries didn’t even have time standardised within their own country & it varied from town to town.....! The age of the telegram further liberates man & goes some ways to establishing GMT, it’s a great section to read as the history unfolds with man moving into the modern world at an ever increasing rate. With all these great advances we add medicine too as this century sees “The ending of the great plagues” where (not bubonic) but killers such as Malaria, smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid & consumption through tuberculoses wane as the century progress via either vaccination or simply by improvement in living standards & the eradication of squalor. Man’s mortality & funeral rites follows in a section called “out of the shadow of death” which looks at rising life expectancy & mans obsession with death, whilst falling birth rates are covered in “controlling the primal urge”, the two sections working in synch at the beginning before the later morphs into prostitution, sexual persuasion & pornography. Both fascinating & touch on the famed Victorian prudency which is in stark contrast to many of the developing practices of the era. Hospitals, doctors & operations are covered in a section called “The management of pain”, amazing to read that cleanliness & sterilisation were resisted for so long during the course of the century & statistics such as; 76% of amputees died after their operation from infection, over a third of women died after giving birth from infection...... then when the simple practice of washing hands & sterilising instruments were enforced the rates dropped dramatically. “Madness & civilisation” deals with the progression of diagnosis, internment & treatment of the insane during the period which make for fascinating reading, gems such as – “Women who behaved in public in a bold, aggressive, independent manner were labelled as nymphomaniac!” & incarcerated as insane. Truly some dark ages material in this section too. We end the chapter on “Discipline & Punish”

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, by Richard Evans, is a history of Europe in the years between the Congress of Vienna, and the start of WWI. It is in the annals style of history, looking at every aspect of this time period in some detail. Evans is an excellent historian, and author of the Third Reich series of books (all fantastic reads), and he is excellently qualified to tackle this subject matter. His style of writing mixes grand strokes of history with intimate narrative details from those who lived it.

Topics covered in this book range widely. He examines the post-Napoleonic European political scene, with a backlash to Napoleon's revolutionary ideals, and a brief implementation of reactionary Monarchist forces throughout Europe, aided and controlled by the "Holy Alliance" of Russia, the UK and Austria-Hungary. However, Napoleon's reforms within Italy and Germany led to deep changes in the composition of the nation-state. The Church lost much ground, as governments hungry for revenues seized ecclesiastical properties, revoked clergy privileges, and so on. Greater representation by the Bourgeois within the political and economic sphere's of European nations came at the expense of the established aristocracy. Ideals of nationalism began to take root in regions of Europe, notably Italy and Germany, who would eventually unite under moderate conservative Monarchies (the Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy, and Prussia in Germany). However, notable nationalist movements were present in Poland (split between Prussia, Austria and Russia), Hungary under the Hapsburg monarchy and throughout the Balkans leading up to WWI.

Evans explores various ideas and concepts throughout this time period as well. Women's rights and agitations for women's suffrage began to take form in this period. Industrialization led to rapid economic growth throughout the continent, but led to poor working conditions for an increasingly literate and agitated working class. Socialism and Communism were defined and took the working class by storm, clashing with the notion that lower class individuals were more apt to be conservatives and religious. Nationalism in various parts of Europe began to take on racial terminology, and the growth of antisemitism and other forms of racism became institutionalized.

Evans explores time and spacial concepts as well. An agreement on dividing the world into time zones was begun and completed in this period. Weights and measures, although still highly localized, began to move to a centralized system often controlled by the government. Railroads and telegraphs cut the time news took to filter throughout society by exponential numbers. Steamships allowed imperial nations to quickly transport goods and armies to far flung parts of the globe. The population of most states began to urbanize, as peasant farmers moved to urban areas to work in factories producing steel, fuel, chemicals and consumer goods.

This period was a period of relative stability in terms of warfare. The Congress of Vienna created a system of states that remained fairly stable for a century. Monarchies flourished in the early part of this period, with the July Monarchy in France, Metternich in Austria, and Tsar Alexander I in Russia working to suppress any hint of Revolutionary rhetoric in continental Europe. However, in 1848 and beyond, a series of revolutions broke this iron grip. Metternich was overthrown in Austria, and nationalists in Hungary began to alter the Hapsburg's system. The French monarchy was overthrown, and Napoleon III took power. Prussia was forced to open the doors to greater influence by the Reichstag. These revolutions were short lived, but paved the way for immense political changes throughout Europe. The serfs in Russia began to agitate for emancipation, and greater representation was the key to cooling down revolutionary unrest in most nations.

Wars did take place. The Crimean War sought to prop up a weak Ottoman state against Russian aggression, with France, Austria and the UK all uniting to fight off the Russian advance. Napoleon III supported the Kingdom of Sardinia and Italian rebels in their quest to create a united Italy. Austria was beaten back by these combined forces, and Sardinia was able to annex Milan, Central Italy, and the Kingdom of Two Siciles, to create a strong Italy (notably missing Venetia - this was taken later). Prussia first took Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, turned on their Austrian allies to untie the German Confederation under Prussian rule, and then incorporated the southern German states and Alsace-Lorraine in their war with France in 1871. Chancellor Otto von Bismark formed Germany as a state as German troops marched through France. In the later portion of this period, multiple wars erupted in the Balkans as Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman's struggled to retain control of an increasingly restive region. Russia interfered multiple times to shave more territory off of the Ottoman's and promote pan-Slavic political ideals.

I could write more, suffice to say that this is a very detailed book. As with any book within the Annals school, a long stretch of history is examined in great depth. There is no overlying thesis, besides the idea that revolution in this period was often followed by conservative reaction, although this is not a new or novel concept. Evans has written a very interesting account of a fascinating period. 1815-1914 was the birth of the modern world, as the systems, ideals and concepts that we currently understand and live under were incubated, explored and became established systems. This book is well written, has a great mix of narrative and long durée style history. It explores its concepts and themes in great depth, and offers and excellent account of many aspects of every day life in this period of time, as well as the grander geopolitical events that took place. This was a lot of fun to read, and an excellent history book of its style. Easily recommended as a comprehensive account of this time period, as it covers every topic one could possibly wish to learn about.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

a weak 5 star - erudition galore and some interesting stuff I didn't know plus showcasing various periods through lives of fairly regular people; main negative, the writing style is not as engaging as the one of the previous volume in the series, Pursuit of Glory, so the book was a read some pages when tired/no energy to read something more engaging, put it down, repeat, rather than read long chunks, cannot put down for a while the Glory one was; still quite recommended for the pluses

[Justin Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evans chooses the encyclopaedic approach here: an endless number of mini-essays on various topics, with huge information dumps included. That sounds awful, but the genius of this book lies in i) its organization; ii) Evans's prose; iii) Evans's eye for detail.

i) No matter what you're interested in, you can find it in this book, and it will all be in one place, and it will be coherent. He covers the entire continent, the entire history of the continent, and all aspects of that history. Do you want to read all of the parts with equal attention? No. I could care less about the details of battles fought in the German hinterlands, but if I ever need to know about it, by golly do I know where to look.

ii) Pristine, clear and balanced.

iii) He has an astonishing eye for anecdotes and details that help most subjects come to life.

My main criteria for judging history written about periods I'm not knowledgeable in is very simple: does this book make me want to learn more? The answer in this case is, very much yes. Why do I know so little about the Balkans? Why do I know so little about anything?

My only real complaint is that Evans is awful on 'culture'. He has a historian's taste, which means a more or less philistine-level understanding of literature: does this novel provide an anecdote I can use in a lecture? That's no way to judge books.

He does seem slightly better when it comes to music, though.

[David Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few general histories of nineteenth-century Europe (notably the first volumes of Eric Hobsbawm’s trilogy), and their authors usually characterize the era as the dawn of Western modernity. Europe in the 1800s became an industrial and military powerhouse, adorned with railroads and vibrant cities, glittering with electric light, its population growing rapidly in size, literacy, and wealth. Evans doesn’t entirely disagree with this assessment; he just notes that it only applied to select parts of Europe, namely Britain, central France, Belgium, and Wilhelmine Germany. Europe included far more countries than these, and many if not most people lived their lives outside of the continent’s urbane North and West. The author’s determination not only to bring these lives into his study, but to argue for their typicality, their “European-ness,” makes PURSUIT OF POWER a special and provocative book.

Popular culture encourages us to envision the archetypal nineteenth-century European as a middle-class urbanite, like Sherlock Holmes or one of Dickens’s clerks. Most Europeans lived instead in rural areas, and most rural Europeans tilled the soil as their ancestors had done. French farmers eschewed machinery until quite recently, and Russian peasants used wooden plows until the First World War. Many country folk looked to spell books and hedge magic to ensure a good harvest or heal minor ailments. Magic proved no more useful than ever, alas, and despite some big improvements in farm output famine remained a periodic threat. Hunger killed thousands of Germans in summerless 1816, cut down one of every eight Irish in 1846-52, assailed the Finns in 1867 and the Cypriots a half-dozen years later. Even in good times, marginal countries like Iceland struggled with malnutrition. Even in times of plenty and fecundity, human settlements abutted undeveloped wilderness: wolves stalked Russia’s muzhiks, and game animals proliferated so widely that a privileged hunter like Franz Ferdinand could in his lifetime bag 300,000 animals. Until Gavrilo Princip bagged him, of course.

Europe’s political culture also remained traditional, indeed rather primitive by twentieth-century standards. Law and justice were becoming the exclusive purview of national courts, but exceptions remained. Southern Europe still contained villages pursuing blood feuds; in one region of Greece feuding families lived in fortified towers like medieval barons. Absolute monarchies slowly, grudgingly allowed their people constitutions and consultative assemblies, but politicians rigged elections and destabilized legislatures. Delegates disrupted the Austrian Reichsrat with fighting and demonstrations, and Italian politicos stuffed ballot boxes – in one district the voting rolls included forty cows. France did manage to create a stable republic (after 1871), primarily by grounding the new state’s power and authority in the nation’s conservative provincial elites. Protest culture sometimes looked forward to a new society, but more often than not protesters looked back to a better past – to a “traditional” economic order or to the glory days of 1789, which inspired the rebels of 1848 to their enthusiastic but ultimately sterile revolt.

Europe’s artists and arbiters of culture also eschewed progress in favor of nostalgia, as often as not for the Middle Ages. Pre-Raphaelite painters, popular novelists like Victor Hugo and Sir Walter Scott, and composers like Wagner yearned for a feudal past when castles stood in place of factories, knights excelled in courage and spiritual purity, and commoners knew their place. Britain’s heavy Victorian architecture recalled the Gothic and Tudor past, and the French refurbished old cathedrals and built new ones. (The architect who restored Notre Dame added gargoyles to the building to make it more “authentically” medieval.)

Evans does remind us that all Europeans, even in the countryside and the remote fringes, made some progress toward the ambiguous blessings of modernity. Farmers continued to adopt the strange but productive American crops that had first appeared in Europe in the 1600s. Romania became a major producer of maize, and Greek peasants adopted Andean potatoes after the prime minister tricked them into thinking spuds valuable. Better nutrition and improvements in urban sanitation lowered infant mortality rates and increased lifespans. Life expectancy across the continent rose by at least one-third between 1815 and 1914. Europe's population grew and expanded, into the cities and across the Atlantic. And while not everyone had access to technological marvels like electric lights and motor cars, the technology of war spread, as it always does, into every corner of Europe. In 1815 the muzzle-loading cannon and socket bayonet represented the battlefield state-of-the-art. By 1913, these had given way to barbed wire, machine guns, and bomber aircraft, which even isolated countries could afford. Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece debuted the new armamentarium in the Balkan Wars, an isolated conflict that still killed 200,000 people. The next year the Balkan conflict and its cruelties spread to the rest of the continent, and the old order, the unstable mixture of rusticity, faux-medievalism, and bourgeois respectability that Europe’s elite had tried to hold together, perished in the trenches.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

To sum up these 716 pages up succinctly would be to say... a small group of rich and powerful, self-important greedy elites who exploit the masses and occasionally get them to fight battles on their behalf to see who can steal even more wealth, power and status whilst leeching off the majority and giving them as little as possible back in return. Some might say that this is also pretty much a shallow but accurate summary of mankind for many a millennium.

This is obviously a book which covers a phenomenal amount of ground, which also happens to be the precise era of Pax Britannica. 1815 was of course a very significant year, Mount Tambora erupted in Indonesia, an event so powerful that it effected weather systems and harvests the world over for years afterwards. The Battle of Waterloo which eventually saw off Napoleon and The Congress of Vienna, ensure that it’s a year which demands attention.

There were so many wars, battles and uprisings and significant events, changes and catastrophes which would shape the ever restless continent. The dictatorship of Napoleon III, the unification of Germany and Italy in 1871. Apparently the physician Thomas Young estimated at one stage that consumption was killing around 25% of Europe. We see that the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire began in 1859 after being defeated by Italy and France in the war of Italian Unification. It was clearly a period of significant and chronic political turbulence with Italy having no less than 32 different governments between 1867 and 1914 and France having 49 different governments from 1871 to 1914.

Elsewhere we learn that by 1900 there were more Irish born men and woman living in the USA than in Ireland itself. Between 1820 and 1914 well over five million Germans went to live in the USA. At least 150’000 people left Italy every year between 1898 and 1914, with some years being much higher, like in 1913 when no fewer than 873’000 emigrated.

The UK had the biggest and strongest navy, and from 1889 onwards it was required by an Act of Parliament to have at least as many battleships as the next two largest navies in the world combined. Between 1870 and 1917 there were more than a hundred marriages solemnized between the sons of English peers and wealthy American women.

Then there were the revolutions that went on between January and July 1848, which although not always successful were a sign of things to come. We learn of the Decembrists in Russia and the battle for Greek independence in the 1820s. Then there was the vital importance of the emancipation of the serfs and the decline of the sharecropping system. The Hungry Forties, the potato blight and resulting famine which killed a million in Ireland, but also devastated large areas of Belgium, Finland, Russia and the Highlands of Scotland.

So this is quite a mighty tome, and although it doesn't always make for engaging reading, it is fairly accessible and you soon learn that during the duller or drawn out moments that there’s always something worthwhile not too far away. A fine enough read in many respects, but certainly not for everyone, and if you are looking for a more succinct summary of this historical period, then you would probably be better served elsewhere.

[Wendell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my experience, there are few subjects, historical or otherwise, more encrusted with past and reactionary rumination than nineteenth-century Europe (there's a plot point in the Prisoner episode “The General,” I suspect, in explicit mockery thereof), and despite Evans' excellence as both a historian and writer (if I haven't done so already, I highly recommend his three-volume history of Nazi Germany), I was a little leery of further pursuing the Penguin History of Europe (of which this is a volume) as a result. I needn't have worried; Evans does a masterful job of synthesizing the usually dreary political (and especially diplomatic) history with thoughtful, eloquent analysis (and I haven't really gotten yet to the social and economic factors, which I expect will be even better explicated). It helps that he opens each chapter with a potted biography of a nineteenth-century European, occasionally obscure (a Napoleonic foot soldier, a Russian serf, etc.), that helps put many of the issues and developments discussed into a more intimate perspective. Not to mention that there are a number of issues I don't remember cropping up in my old undergrad reading on European history that figure not only in prominence but current relevance: what it means to be European, who decides what that means (and the consequences), and the impact Europeans of the nineteenth century had on their natural environment (and vice versa).

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Pakistani living in UK, I have found the history of nineteenth century Europe very interesting indeed, especially when you consider very similar challenges faced in the Pakistan of today; Loss of traditional livelihood in the wake of industrial growth, movement of population from rural to urban areas, and the shift of power to the population from feudal elites. This fantastic history book has answered a long standing question about Pakistani apprehension of western styled democracy. I am now convinced that the Pakistani urban population have to learn to wrest power from the feudal business nexus controlling them at the moment. There are signs with sporadic attempts made by the urban population with impromptu riots and demonstrations from time to time. So instead of dismissing these attempts as 'anarchic' and 'archaic', I shall now view these events as normal progression towards a successfully democratic model sometimes in the future.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, volume seven of the Penguin History of Europe, spans the period from the fall of Napoleon I to the onset of WWI in 843 pages. It's both too much and too little: too little in that a history of such compass, covering social, technological, ideological and political developments, can only be impressionistic; too much in that the details, the facts are virtually overwhelming, the author jumping from country to country. Unlike, say, a Marxist history, there is no central thread connecting the whole, no clearly traceable dynamic, no plot. Economics plays a role, but so does chance and inertia. Consequently, while quite the substantial meal, it's a hard one to digest--except, perhaps, for readers very well versed in the period who will read it with critical appreciation.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made the mistake of reading this at the same time as I read a book on the revolution in Russia. The books overlapped so I found myself getting mixed up. But this was a hard book to keep up with anyway--a huge period of time covering many countries. Evans did a pretty good job, I think, of covering some of the less central countries (during this era), but it was overwhelming. The chapters were way too long also. It was well researched but I think perhaps it should have covered a shorter period of time if he was going to go into such depth.

[Xander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penguin Publishers started, years ago, with publishing a series on books on the History of Europe. After reading all the chronological previous books, I decided recently to pick up the book, written by historian Richard J. Evans, on the nineteenth century: The Pursuit of Power: Europe, 1815-1914 (2017).

The previous volume, The Pursuit of Glory (2007) by Tim Blanning explains how, from the end of the Thirty Years'War (1648) up to the French Revolution (1789), Europe gradually transformed. During this time, royalty and nobility became more important and their striving for glory resulted in all the huge wars -and consequently taxation, bankruptcy and mass oppression.

Evans calls his book The Pursuit for Power, as if in dialogue with Blanning - and this is not for nothing. The whole period 1815-1914 can be characterized as an era in which everyone fought for more power. In essence, Evans' main theses can be summarized as follows:

After the Napoleonic Wars (which ended in 1815), the various European powers were so shocked and traumatized by the scale of destruction on the Continent, that for a period of decades they decided to keep the peace. During this time, industrialization caused a huge transformation of society: more and more people flocked to the cities; agricultural productivity increased; technological innovations and discoveries led to more demand for works; all of this causing a shift in economic emphasis on industry as opposed to agriculture.

Next to these developments, there had been the Enlightenmen and the French Revolution. This, combined with increased speed and range of communication and personal transport, led to the a Continent (or even World-) wide diffusion of ideas of liberty, equality and, somewhat less, brotherhood. During this moment (early nineteenth century) Europe still consisted of largely static masses of powerless people. Inspired by these ideas, those masses gradually rose up against their rulers, demanding more personal liberties - free press, freedom of religion, freedom to organise, etc. - and more democratic influence.

All these developments culminated in two waves of Revolutions, in 1830 and in 1848, in which the rapid communication led to a European wide series of upheavals. Even though these revolutionary squabbles were brutally suppressed by the military might of the states, the leading figures saw that the people had to be granted more liberty and democracy in order to prevent any future revolutionary tendencies. This led to the paradox of radical reactionary governments granting their people more liberty and democracy (albeit in a very limited form).

It also pointed to another paradox: liberalism and socialism, which later on became such staunch opponents, both find their origin in the same cause: transferring power from the authorities to the individual. Why this initially fruitful relationship ended up so sourly, is easily understood when we consider that once liberals took hold of political power, they started promoting their own class interests (most of them were bourgeious), and these interests were radically opposed to the interests of workers, peasants, lower middle class, etc. Free trade and later on imperialism weren't necessarily fruitful for the people at large.

After the second revolution (1848), Europe saw the creation of the German Empire, under the brilliant and opportune Bismarck, who used inter-European strife to promote his own goals. The rise of a new German Empire led to radical new geo-political relationships. This new playing field, combined with the run on colonies towards the end of the nineteenth century, led to political alliances that would later on, in 1914, lead to open conflict. An important factor during the period of imperialism was the idea of a racial theory, according to which human races differ in development and one'sown race (usually Anglo-Saxon) was deemed superior. This attitude led to horrible atrocities commited in Africa, Asia and Australia by countries like Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Underpinning this racial hierarchy was Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, applied to society - which should stop the degeneration of the human race - by people like Galton, Haeckel and Spencer. This movement, called Social Darwinism, was at the roots of the tens of thousands of people - mostly criminals and mentally ill - who were deemed unfit and forcibly castrated in countries like the USA and Sweden later on the century. Hitler's atrocities clearly didn't originate in a vacuum...

Covering the whole period is a process of gradual democratization, in which more and more people became elligble to vote. This excluded women, unfortunately, who - despited the rise of feminism - had to wait until after World War 1 before they became equal, at least democratically, to men. Also, during this whole period, freedom cycles between increasing and decreasing, as governments saw fit. So during this same period we see the suppression of the socialist German aprty SPD by the Kaiser and Bismarck, as well as liberal reforms by Tsar Alexander II.

It is safe to say that the whole period of 1815-1914 is a period of moment-to-moment ambiguities and confusion, as well as gradual progression for more and more people. It is almost impossible to fully grasp the impact of the world-transforming changes that took place. The world literally became much more smaller and more connected, as well as much more dangerous. While leaving aside all the eye-catching details, one can easily say that the nineteenth century belongs to one of the most impressive and interesting periods of history.

Of course, it is impossible to fully honor a book, spanning 700+ pages and more than a century, in a short review. So I can only recommend reading this book to anyone interested in a general history of the nineteenth century. It is written in a very accessible style, with lots of historical examples and biographical details, as well as a wide scope in subjects, from military and political conflicts to social and economic developments, and from cultural ideals and scientific breakthroughs to moral outlooks and religious beliefs. A truly superb book! (Yet a little too long winded at times and occasionaly too much dates and numbers - hence, not a perfect score).

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a good example on how not to write history. There is a story that can be told about in any period of history which should make the reader not want to wait to turn the next page, this book definitely only wanted me to turn the page to finish it and move on.

The 19th century is rich with relevance and is easily tied together as a comprehensive whole and Evans seemed to have tried to do his best from keeping away from the real story behind the story by never getting beyond a string of facts that he never weaves into a compelling narrative.

Antisemitism was everywhere in Europe, democracy developing, nationalism morphing into proto fascism, woman developing rights, colonialism leading to exploitation, cruelty, slavery, exploitation of indigenous populations, and so on are all mentioned in the book, and the changing nature of liberal v. conservatives, but Evans just mentions the facts and almost never contextualize what it was going to mean by considering the ramifications beyond a string of facts loosely tied together. History presented properly is fun and entertaining, this book was always dull and devoid of meaning about the meaning of what was going on.

I love facts. I love history. There are big themes that happened during this period of time but Evans just didn’t seem to have the gumption to get beyond the morass of the minutia of his facts, and he was bound and determined to keep telling facts instead of a history. Read Thucydides and see how an author can take the particular (facts) and tell the general (history) and have the student love the history by processing the facts and loving the well told stories in the process.

There was a weird British biased in the story telling. How can Evans title a chapter ‘adventurers and explorers’, while documenting how the British were looting, raping, and pillaging Egyptians and their artifacts or killing Africans while thinking of them as not part of the human race? Perhaps, Evans meant the title of the chapter ironically.

History is brutal, but there is a story that needs to be told for one to appreciate what was really happening. Evans misses the boat on this period of time and at times is more interested in telling one-damn-fact-after-another than he is in telling the real story behind the history, the finding out, the narrative. When a good historian reveals the narrative and the reader gets to find out the meaning that’s when history shines. This book clearly does not shine.

[Fearless Leader · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the first two thirds of this book I would have given it four stars. This book’s best quality is the conversational writing style. Often the author will change to another topic mid paragraph as if you were talking to someone and they were going off on a tangent. In this book, this tangent style of writing works well.

However, once the author reaches the end of the period, 1890-1914, he can’t help but defend leftists (especially syndicalists and socialist anarchists). And finding any excuse to denigrate nationalists and royalists (which have nothing to do with each other). I suppose considering the authors other work I shouldn’t be surprised. He definitely giving you a revisionist view of history and I would recommend you look for another general history of the period.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, exhaustive, heavily descriptive, weak on culture, light on analysis.

[Daniel Zadravec · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic read that encapsulated the dramatic "century of peace" in Europe, this book by Evans once again proves his mastery of European history. Taking the reader all across Europe, from the banks of the Danube to the Low Countries and beyond, Evans weaves together a transnational history of Europe at its epoch, and masterfully educates the reader on the various happenings on the continent, and how they all tied together to launch Europe into the global power from 1815-1914. He also explores how this power began to diminish, cumulating with the Great War, ending with prophetic quote from from Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, "the lamps are going out over Europe, we shall not see them lit again on our lifetime".

For readers interested in transnational history of Europe in its century of peace, I highly recommend this book. Exploring roles of nationalism, liberalism, democratization, and much more, this book is a great read.

[Sarah W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hefty tome attempts to chronicle the history of Europe in the 19th century, from the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo to the outbreak of World War I. To some degree, this is an impossible task, but the author manages to trace a number of themes across the political, social, and cultural aspect of this period, making this book a valuable touchpoint to understanding this era in European history. When I read historical works like this, I am always reminded of the gaps that can occur by narrowing focusing on one era, country, or person. For example, I was chilled by reading how the policies put into place in Germany's African colonies in the 1890s foreshadowed the atrocities of the Holocaust decades later. Overall, a valuable read for understanding Europe in the 19th century.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the newest volume of the Penguin History of Europe, It covers the period from the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and the Congress of Vienna in 1815 until the start of the First World War in August 1914. The author is best known for his magnificent three volume history of the Third Reich. This book is the prelude to the volume on Europe in the 20th Century by Ian Kershaw entitled "To Hell and Back" - which was also quite good.

This book has gotten good reviews but I was a bit wary in approaching it. There is a lot of material to cover and most of it has already been covered before and well by other historians, albeit in separate volumes. What is the point of a new one volume history of the 19th century? I think there is a lot to be gained, especially by a quality volume. The overall story that emerges from historians over time matters for how we think about the past and how that thinking affects us going forward. Many people don't read much history at all and so a volume that provides some access to how Europe moved from triumph over Napoleon to devastation in WWI is valuable - to students who read it, to general reader who reads even part of it, and to many who want to know how things fit together. Evans does a really fine job of establishing a few general story lines and then following them through consistently while at the same time presenting accounts of the more numerous but limited dramas that together comprise the century.

I increasingly have come to appreciate the deep history behind many of the crises going on in the present - whether in the Middle East, China, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Greece, France, Britain, or whatnot. Not only is there a history behind current events, but there are interconnections that are startling and thought provoking. I have been reading European history for a long time and this book was able to inform and startle in most of its chapters. While this is not an account for specialists, it is very good and consistent with what the specialists have been finding with all of the new archival openings since 1989.

As might be expected, Evans is wonderful on the military, political, and diplomatic lines of the story. That is essential of course, since the volume runs from Napoleon through 1848 and Bismarck and up through the Balkan Wars and the onset of WWI. The last chapter is amazing for what he presents in a limited space. There is a lot more to this book, however. Most chapters begin with a feature on some individual you have likely never heard of but whose life figures into the narrative. The.social, intellectual, and culture developments that move Europe into modernity are well covered. Evans is also very persuasive on the economic history of the century, whether discussing the two industrial revolutions, the changes in diet and food production, or the changes in medicine, public health, life spans, and the growth of cities. There is a lot going on but the book holds together well and is very satisfying. There is also copious guidance for further readings.

This is a long book - perhaps better viewed as a well integrated series of essays. It is very much worth a try.

The past few months have been a bit depressing. Reading a good book that helps put things in historical context helps to convince me that perhaps things might not be so bad or that at least it will take more time to see how everything develops out of the confusion of current messes. Perhaps it is not as bad as it seems. Time will tell.

[Omar Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding, thorough and magisterial review of European history, from 1815 to 1914. This is not just the story of all the kings, ministers, revolutionaries and assorted adventurers who ran (or created) the nations of Europe (though that story is covered in detail too); there are chapters on everything from agriculture and science to tourism and travel. And of course, writers and musicians get their due, and not just those already well known in the anglophone world.
I found it generally fair and balanced, with every group's achievements as well as massacres and genocides getting their due. There is a very mild pro-British tilt in the description of European imperial expansion, mostly in the form of a mild but persistent tendency to drop in a sentence or two about why such and such British commander went too far on a given occasion, but the French, Germans and Belgians tend to get less exculpation (to fair, the latter two rarely deserve any exculpation, being distinctly more vicious as colonists, so there is always that). But there is no attempt to hide any crimes or to explain them away completely.
What did l learn that was new? Lots of details, but not a lot of big picture stuff. Partly because I have been on a history binge recently, so the big picture was already known to me, but mostly because there is very little attempt to draw grand "lessons" or to ram meta-stories down your throat. They are sometimes there, but they are kept very low-key. Still, if you happen to be unfamiliar with the history of the period (or get most of your history third hand from woke-stylists and suchlike) then this book should convince you that Europe was not always the Europe that exists in recent imagination. The Europe that exists today is a relatively recent creation and much that is solid melts into thin air if you go back a 150 years or so. And the same goes in spades for imperialism and the famous culture of empire, which really did not flower in Britain until the latter part ot the 19th century; meaning there were people who were born before the first empire day was celebrated, who were still alive when the empire died.
Overall, a great read, loaded with information, and well worth owning and reading at leisure.