The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815

Penguin History of Europe #6

by Timothy C.W. Blanning

'The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing's great projects' New Statesman

The Pursuit of Glory brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in European history - from the battered, introvert continent after the Thirty Years War to the dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon. Tim Blanning depicts the lives of ordinary people and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon), and explores an era of almost unprecedented change, growth and cultural, political and technological ferment that shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, World History, Politics, 18th Century, Audiobook

708 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2007

About the author

Timothy Charles William Blanning, FBA is Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, where he taught from 1992 until 2009. His work focuses on the history of Europe from the 17th century to the beginning of the First World War.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pursuit of Glory is not just the best book I've read in a while; it's also, due to its extraordinary length, the only book I've read in a while. I was inspired to pick it up by this almost excessively glowing NYT review, which turns out to be a very accurate description of it--so I'll try to mention some other aspects.

It's an entry in a new Cambridge series that intends to tell the story of European history from the classical period until, more or less, now--in eight volumes. So I suppose you could say that Blanding got off lightly only having to cover 1648-1815, less than two hundred years, in his book. What makes this book ultimately so satisfying is that in seven hundred pages, it explores not just the social and political history of the period, but also ties them together through the history of the developing public sphere, and shows how those innovations--coffee houses, postal systems, scientific societies, etc.--make this period a hinge in European history.

The book is organized in an interesting way: the first section talks about developments in everyday life; the second discusses new ideas at court, in the church, and in politics; and the third is a more traditional overview of the politics and wars of the period. Several sections stand out as particularly interesting. Blanding discusses different conceptions of time and of place (time as cyclical versus forward-moving, and greater ease in travel). One chapter talks about hunting as a primary activity at court--a topic that I've never read about, even though it was very different from the kind of British fox-hunting a modern reader might envision. (One practice, deemed suitable for ladies, was known as fox-tossing: tossing a small animal up in the air from an outstretched blanket repeatedly until it died.) Another chapter analyzes the arts in the broad terms of "the culture of reason" versus "the culture of feeling." While I value the book chiefly as a cogent synthesis of the period, it contains quite a few new facts as well. And somehow Blanding can take even information that's very familiar and make it feel newly significant.

I enjoyed the author's view towards the period: he's capable of simultaneously acknowledging the importance of the shoulders we're standing on, and having a bit of a laugh at the strangeness of history (especially the gross inbreeding of the Habsburgs, which is a sort of recurring punchline). It would be impossible to find a truly representative paragraph in a book of this length, but here's a bit that shows how evocative Blanding can be, in one paragraph, of a place you wouldn't necessarily expect to see covered here:

Sicily was also special in that it boasted a Parliament, one of only three in eighteenth-century Italy [...:]. As representative assemblies go, however, both its ambition and achievements were limited. As its three chambers were dominated by the privileged orders who had the most to lose from change, it acted as a brake on what was already a somnolent polity. Victor Amadeus II referred to it contemptuously as 'an ice-cream Parliament,' as the deputies spent most of their time consuming refreshments. With a majority of votes controlled by a handful of intermarried clans, the proceedings were a formality. One carriage was usually sufficient to transport all the deputies who bothered to turn up and just two or three sessions were sufficient to complete the business. At least Victor Amadeus II spent a year getting to know his new acquisition. Charles III was just a week on the island before returning to Naples, leaving behind a status of himself which, for reasons of economy, was made from the melted-down statue of his predecessor.

I also liked how, in the third and most turgid section, which deals with the political and military machinations of the period in a relatively traditional way, Blanding is willing to admit when something isn't worth the effort:

Even the most gifted narrator would find it difficult to construct an account of the 1720s both coherent and interesting, or indeed either of those things. Only intense concentration and repeated reference to the chronology can reveal which abortive congress was which, which short-lived league brought which powers together, who was allied to whom, who was double-crossing whom, or whatever.

Overall, the book brought the period exhilaratingly to life and I look forward to returning to it, perhaps in ten years or so.

[Warwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the more famous diary entries in history is Louis XVI's record of what happened on the 14th July 1789:

nothing,

according to his journal. What he actually meant by this was, ‘I didn't shoot any animals today’, since his diary only really goes into detail about his hunting. A few months later we have:

October, Monday 5th, shooting party at the Châtillon Gate; killed eighty-one items of game. Interrupted by events. Left and returned on horseback.

These bland ‘events’ were the October Days, when the royal family was forcibly marched to Paris and the Queen was almost lynched. France was unique in trying (and failing) to demolish its social inequality, but that dizzying gulf in experience and understanding between princes and their people was fairly standard throughout the Europe of the time. ‘It might almost be said that peasants should be treated like dried cod,’ one German essayist had written a few generations earlier: ‘they are best when they have been properly pummelled and pounded.’

There were some enlightened rulers who tried to introduce reforms, but the challenges were formidable. Not only was there a lot of lethargy in the system, but you needed something to replace it with. ‘Only where there were sufficient commoners of sufficient education could the nobles be dispensed with,’ as Tim Blanning puts it. ‘But that was nowhere.’

Different countries dealt with this in different ways. Back in the seventeenth century, England and France had both had severe constitutional upsets. England came out of theirs with a weird mish-mash of king and parliament which has somehow lasted to this day. France emerged from theirs with an absolute monarchy that would not last, mirroring the situation across most of Europe. (Though in some places, very little seems to have changed. One Russian noble, or oligarch if you prefer, is recorded as saying, ‘Despotism tempered by assassination – that is our Magna Carta.’)

Of course the French Revolution did change everything (conceptually if not in fact), bursting on the scene, in Blanning's pleasing phrase, as a diabolus ex machina at the end of this period. But even before that, there had been modifications. The emergence of the idea of the nation, and more specifically the concept of what we'd now call public opinion, became ‘an alternative source of legitimacy’, so that while rulers in the 1600s would just do shit unilaterally, by the turn of the nineteenth century almost everyone had to at least pay lip service to what people wanted.

Beyond that, the grand narratives of the long eighteenth century are not very clear, and Blanning is in no great hurry to identify any. There is a huge boom in scientific understanding and in rationality in general, but he's wary of taking ‘the Enlightenment’ too seriously when so many people either ignored it or reacted against it. And alongside this current of liberal enquiry is an equal trend of conservatism, best summarised by the situation at the end of the period when elites were, if anything, more entrenched than ever.

Without a clear, or even vague, narrative line, I found the book as a whole to be extraordinarily difficult to push through. It covers 150 years and I feel like I've been reading it in real time. The organisation of the book, into thematic chunks, makes a lot of sense but it also makes all these sections feel very detached from each other – again, one struggles to see an overarching shape. Sometimes he admits it himself:

Even the most gifted narrator would find it difficult to construct an account of the 1720s both coherent and interesting, or indeed either of those things.

This has the benefit of being disarmingly honest, but it doesn't solve the problem. His approach also means that, for instance, all of the period's wars and other conflicts are pushed into a final ‘War and Peace’ section, some two hundreds pages of pure military history in punishing detail and of incoherent relevance. It's a treacly way to end the book, for those who make it that far.

More seriously, there are no footnotes in this book. None at all! At first I thought perhaps they had all been moved online somewhere to save space – but no, he just doesn't source anything. I am not an academic reader but I found this a huge problem; there were so many things I wanted to verify or follow up in more detail, and the bibliography is not enough. It may well be true, as claimed here, that Bernini referred to Colbert as ‘a right cunt’, but I'd like to look it up myself, thanks, especially when he presumably wasn't speaking English and there's no word of comparable strength in any other European language I'm familiar with.

For all of these reasons I am much less impressed with this book than the published reviews were. Perhaps partly that's because I've been reading about this period solidly for over a year, so a lot of the information was not actually new to me – I wanted something else, something a bit more analytical perhaps. If you just want a lot of detail on every conceivable aspect of life across the continent in the eighteenth century, this may work better for you – as long as you're OK with just taking his word for it.

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure it's incredibly difficult to write a book about European History covering a hundred and fifty years which is at all academically respectable; Mr Blanning has certainly done it. But the balancing of respectability with accessibility has come at great cost. First, what is surely the most bizarre decision every taken in the history of publishing, this book has no end-notes. So where an author might want to write "the condition of roads in Europe was very bad in 1648, but by the nineteenth century things were very much improved," and then throw a few statistics in the end-note, Blanning compiles thirty pages of anecdotes and figures- about *ROADS* for the love of god. Important, yes. Interesting, no. Second, the book's perspective is bottom up in a slightly too literal sense. That chapter on roads is the first one; you'll read virtually nothing about the 'high' realms of culture and politics until the final chapters. I understand why you might want to do that theoretically, and I agree with those theories, but reading it is water torture. Third, on the evidence of this book Blanning is a militant atheist. Whatever, many academics are, but it skews his analysis and the content of this book. You may well be interested in the gardens and hunting habits of aristos during this period, but to give as many pages to *each* of those activities as you do to the entire edifice of *both* the Catholic and Protestant churches in this time period is flat out wrong.

These three points, combined with the crazy hype surrounding this book, makes me give it two stars. He writes well, but thanks to the no-notes business it's not very readable. Maybe the second edition can be 350 pages of text plus 200 pages of notes; maybe the narrative element will be a bit stronger. That'd be a five star book, because his judgments are very persuasive and fairly independent of prevailing fashions (e.g., really, the industrial revolution happened and was kinda important.)

[Wilson Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, please understand this book is not for the casual reader. I've read this book for the third time and I'm now just reviewing it. If it means anything to you, I really don't do much of re-watching movies and I certainly don't do much of re-reading of books, as they are so time consuming.

Understand this book is special, for more than one reason. 1) This book is a survey first and foremost of the European people. I would say that well over half of this book is devoted to learning what the ordinary man, woman, and child went through on a daily basis to keep from going hungry and thirsty. 2) This book is a survey of European history from 1648 at the end of the 30 Years War(s) to the end of the Treaty of the Congress of Vienna at the end of the second and final exile of Emperor Napoleon I. The chosen time frame is crucial to understand why this planet has shaped up the way it has in the past 98 years (since WWI).

If you want to know how life was in 1648 you will find that until 1800 the average human never travelled more than three miles from their point of coming into this world. Traveling a mear 20 miles would have cost two or three years in wages and would have taken two or three days with the likely hood of peril enroute. You will learn how waterways were flat out quicker, but they really didn't bridge the gap, pardon the pun. You will learn how women had their place, religion was strict for the first 100 years of this time, and you'll learn how trade and manufacturing evolved with capitalistic ideals.

The French hegemony will become apparent and you'll understand that the French Revolution wasn't contained within the borders of France; it erupted into a European War that last 23 years. That during that time 5,000,000 people would die because of war, which was as much as had died in the four years of WWI.

You will understand, as best as you will ever understand without a serious regimen of study, how Germany became what was by 1914.

Once you get to the three-quarters side of the book, you will understand why the author chose the name of the book as The Pursuit of Glory, because mainly Louis XIV had the idea that conquest was his Glory and he deserved Europe. After him, his heirs knew no different and the "French Revolution," which was started as a outcry from the common folk, simply did what just happened in Egypt and placed an even more conservative and more harsh regime in it's place which killed more, with the guillotine, than any regime before or after it.

My detraction with this book is simple. The only reason I won't give this author and this book five stars and only four is because this book is difficult to read and sometimes you put it down after reading a paragraph, because you have to absorb it. What is the solution? I don't know that there is a solution. The subject matter isn't JFK's Camelot and prose really doesn't lend itself to the subjects at hand. I've seen him change subject mid-paragraph and I think I have seen it mid-sentence.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand Europe and why we are where we are today. I literally listen to the news and read the news paper differently today because of this book!

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Onto book 6 of the series & have to say I’m not too sure i’ll be completing my quest this year with this episode weighing in at over 700 pages....

I’m hoping this edition will be overall more favourable than the prior which was a real struggle to finish in the end....

As always we start with principle maps of Europe over the period in question with the final map being after the battle of Waterloo (1815) where the landscape of Europe has changed quite dramatically from the opening map set after The peace of Westphalia (C1648). Again the book is split into parts covering the whole of the period (same format as the prior book), fingers crossed then.....

Part 1 is entitled “Life & Death” & is split into 4 chapters, we start with “communications” which starts with a comparison that in today’s world we could circumnavigate the world in 2 days whereas in 1648 we’d be lucky to reach the next village in that time & oft only via “Shanks’ pony”. When put in those terms it’s quite revealing of the limitations of humans in this period & the chapter tells of examples/stories of the rapid change during the period 1648-1815 across the whole of Europe. We start with a section on “Roads” which sounds quite innocuous but the impact was quite drastic on the growth of European powers, for instance in France, where there were multitudes of highways but they were comparatively empty as they couldn’t transport/carry freight (basically they were built for ease of travel for the court & the nobility), as compared to England where Turnpikes (heavy load baring roads) multiplied throughout the 1700’s pulling upwards the economy as all it’s major centres of commerce were connected with travelling times cut by half over the course of 2 generations. It’s quite an enlightening opening as you read about other parts of Europe which had minimal road networks resulting in poorer economies & even standard of living. An example given in Spain where it was easier for a coastal town to import grain via ship than have it transported (via a mule track) from inland 50 miles away where it was half the cost! Waterways is the next section we explore and it's relevant that the two maritime powers of the era, the Dutch and the British exploit and develop canals more readily than other nations, mainly due to the lie of their land, rapidly increasing their commercial trading enterprises as they join up landlocked cities via the waterways, the Midlands being a case example. Another example is of Russia which makes territory grabs in the Crimea and the Balkans to join up it's region via waterways (Rivers), its landscape & resources spread so wide, making it difficult to navigate due to its poor roads and oft boggy conditions in winter, as a power you can see the relation to this trait come expansion as the Russians catch up the other powers during this period of History. The next section is called “Tolls” and goes a very long way to showing why Britain had such a huge economic advantage and was more prosperous than say France who had its many ways of extracting "tolls" from merchants making the cost of products uneconomical not to mention the extra transportation time due to endless stop and inspection of goods. Britain having minimal tolls & a standard rate of tax throughout the land.

The next chapter is called “peoples” & I hope it’s as engrossing as the first chapter where I ended up making copious notes.... We start with the “numbers” which illustrate a dip in the population before an explosion from 1750 however there is a disparity across Europe where the Mediterranean so long the forerunner of European civilisation starts to lag behind the Northern states. We learn about Mortality be it through Famine, War or Plague which in this period are the main killers of man. Medicine has a section where we learn that in reality we’re still following the practices of the Greeks & Romans in treating the bodies 4 humours, although the cure of Smallpox (and the hows) is illustrated & leads to breakthroughs come the end of the period (vaccinations) as well as scientific study of traditional “wise women remedies” (they’d mostly stopped burning them as witches by then!) which discover the properties of Foxglove & Jesuit bark for instance. “Women, sex & Gender” is an entertaining read where I believe the author could very well have written a lot more about the subject so in depth is this section. We finish with migration which has a huge impact in this era, no doubt influenced by better ability to travel as outlaid in the opening chapter & it’s that, urban sprawl & and persecution affected by peoples in their homeland which are the main reasons with the trend being West to East as the Balkans are reclaimed from the Ottomans & the Russians/Prussians expand their territories. It ends on a interesting theory, whilst many nations malcontent's migrated the French did not & its in France we end up with the French revolution whilst perhaps the British equivalent happens in America & the Spanish in Central America??

Chapter 3 is entitled “Trade & manufacturing” & we start with “Trade” opening with the Dutch Republic giving their history from rise to fall during the period through their trading prowess, giving insight into the how’s & why’s & it’s impact across the rest of Europe with the inevitable retaliation meted out by other European powers of the time. Going the other way was Russia with its rise to power in the same period & of course it would be rude not to mention the upcoming powerhouse of the time, Great Britain! With Trade done we move onto “Manufacturing” which is covered via the impact of Guilds (monopolies of the era from what I can surmise) firstly & then finishes with a section entitled “An industrial revolution?” where the changes in manufacturing during the period mid 1750’s onwards are described. Various writers (later & of the time) also give their views on weather a revolution did occur or was it a gradual increase in output. Its a section full of facts & figures but the author remains concise & keeps it interesting.

For the final chapter, Chapter 4 we have “Agriculture & the rural world”. We start with a comparison to today where only 1.7% of the workforce (England), are employed in Agriculture, whereas C 1700 over 80% of the population lived rurally of which over 2/3rds were employed directly in Agriculture with others making a living from the produce of their labours. Its during this period that farming methods (2-3 field rotation & fields laying fallow) were challenged & improved which saw a dramatic change in the use of the land & crop productivity with the leading nations being in the North-West of Europe (Britain, Dutch & Germans) – 10,000 years of habit changed in less than 50 years brought about such a dramatic transformation in how we farm. The impact of new crops such as Maize & the humble potato are realised too, with the whole process having knock-on effects which impact across the human way of life. Serfdom is explored where sovereigns, notably the Austrian Habsburgs, try to emancipate them from their Lords/landlords who keep them impoverished & subservient to them as opposed to the crown itself. Changes are beginning to occur in how we live, becoming more urban, less ties to the land, less ties to our Lords & masters..... but it’s a slower change in some regions than others, taking Russia as an example where you could travel for days without coming across even a village.

Part 2 is simply called “Power” & it’s split into 2 chapters & for Chapter 5 “Rulers & their elites” we start with “2 Executions & 2 Assassinations”..... I bet you can guess on the executions? Yes it’s our very own King Charles & France’s Louis XVI where a brief section on each, last words, quotes about their trials etc are retold, the politics no doubt being left for a later chapter. The assassinations, actually there are quite a few near misses throughout the period, concern the Swedish crown & Tsar Paul I of Russia whose royal line had quite a few scrapes along the way! We deal with the specifics of each & there is no rambling (or swollen with facts/figures/names/places) in the text as per the prior author, I mention this as the format of this book is following the same lines as the prior in the series. We move through the Empires of the period, each titled per section, giving an overview of their regimes, again it’s a concise history of each & holds my interest. Going through the empires it’s apparent to me that I know very little (detail) about the 30 years war & the make-up of Europe at this time, the chapter concerning Brandenburg-Prussia rely on you knowing the history of this event in order to fully understand – it’s ok to follow but it’s not perfect. In contrast though, the ruling of Russia is illustrated perfectly giving the machinations of the state & its centre of power along with the edicts/personages which made it thus over the period. We end with the Holy Roman Empire which deserves a book in it’s self I would wager but at the end of “Rulers & their elites” I feel properly versed in the lay of the land for each empire through the period & can see the reasoning behind their rise, falls & actions by their regime make-up, a very well written & informative chapter with jus the right amount of detail (without swamping the reader in anecdotes & trivia like another book in the series I won’t mention!)

Chapter 6 gives us “Reform & revolution” where we cover topic areas of “The State”, “The Nation” & then “The people” which formed the third part of the troika that pulled the political chariot of the late C18th. Its a well presented chapter that evolves & lays out for you the state of play of each empire/nation across Europe, it deals with rebellions, government practices & evolution , people power, the beginning of Nationalism & people’s sense of identity with enlightenment playing a key role. The chapter ends with The French Revolution – People, nation, State – giving a brief overview into the machinations of the revolution, it’s course through France & it’s impact across Europe, it includes Napoleonic era as a postscript. All in all an entertaining read, again succinct in its detail, not rambling & clearly illustrates the path that lead to revolution through key factors. It was good to be reacquainted with this period again (French revolution) as it was my syllabus for my A level History

Part 3 entitled “Religion & Culture” begins with Chapter 7 “Religion & the Churches”& is most probably the chapter I’ve not been looking forward to! However the sections are short & concise (a pattern this author has followed throughout) & the opener of “Rome & the papacy” illustrates perfectly the fall of the political influence of the pope throughout the catholic world basically from the treaty of Westphalia where The papacy isn’t even included on the redrawn map of Europe, with Sicily & Napoli no longer part of its dominion but given to the Habsburg Empire. “Prelates” is a section that covers those with power/influence within the church ie the Cardinals & bishops & we see that many have come to the church through the nobility, many not even believing in god & as it went, the first son inherited, the second son joined the Army/Navy & the third became a member of the clergy, showing that joining the clergy was more about having power/wealth/influence than anything else. Over the period though the power waned/was taking away by the state & so the nobility fell away from the church as a result (loss of influence) leaving more commoners to rise through the ranks. The section on “Monasteries” gives further examples of the churches power & following before it’s decline, that at one point 2/3rds of all ploughable land in France was owned by the Catholic church, this includes all the revenue collected from rent & then the tithe, another statistic has that there were more nuns in the region of Florence then married women! The Jesuits (Boo Hiss!) are covered too in this section as the decline of the church & its various sects continue towards the end of the period in question.

Again Ive enjoyed reading this part, its clarity & direction is well written allowing the reader to understand the nuances/lay of the land of the period without drowning in statistics, anecdotes & endless dates/names. A great part & i say that in the same breath as religion..... that don’t oft happen!

Chapter 8 “Court & Country” begins with a section on “Hunting in France” which is very informative & an unusual addition as modern sensibilities show disdain towards such practices but in the court of the Sun King it was an almost daily event, done with fanfare & great excess clearly illustrating the esteem which such practices were held in, during that period, by the royal family & the nobility. The scale is huge, we’re talking about 2,100 horses & 2,500 dogs being held at the royal stables for hunting with thousands of game being taken in a single year (tallies were kept). Whereas in the Holy Roman Empire “Fox Tossing” was all the rage! And YES that’s quite a literal practice. We move onto England & of course cover “Fox Hunting & Cock fighting” which was all the rage in the land & part of a days entertainment for all (not jus nobility). Horse racing’s origins are explained & you can see where the phrase, “The sport of Kings” comes from, a day hunting being combined with racing which then took off as a sport in its own right. Some detailed information in this section illustrating the culture & sensibilities of the era which makes for interesting reading.

“Palaces & gardens” is the quaint title for chapter 9..... Versailles of course gets a mention & a whole section to itself, although it would appear that (almost) every European country was at it (building palaces) during this period except for us in Blighty & the Dutch republic..... it seemed a phenomena distinct only to the autocratic monarchies who were trying to re-establish their authority during the 1700’s after periods of strive during the 1600’s across most of Europe’s monarchies, this being their show of power.

The culture of feeling (artists & philosophers) and the culture of reason (scientists) is one chapter (chapter 10) which was at first only mildly interesting for the likes of me although it did go on to give examples of scientific reason vs church doctrine, finishing with a section about witch hunting which ends with the defining statement, in 1648 witches were being burnt all over Europe; by 1815 anyone attempting to prosecute a witch would find themselves in the dock..... sounds like progress to me! Despite covering topics I wouldn’t normally read about it’s a book that still holds my attention throughout.

Part 4 is the final part of the book (i’m nearly there!!) entitled “War and Peace” which is split into 3 chronological chapters, we start at the beginning (1648) with the peace of Westphalia & chapter 11 ends with the peace of Nystad (1721). Louis XIV is front & centre (he of the recent TV series Versailles) throughout as France flexes its muscle whilst the rest of Europe gang together. We’ve read much about this history in earlier chapters which covered the politics & the peoples, so in this its more about the warfare & the outcomes of battles/treaties & their impact. In a way I wish this part was combined within earlier chapters but I understand the format the author has presented the book in. The war of Spanish succession dominates in the West & Central Europe but it’s only the scheme of things that are retold, a brief synopsis if you will which is ideal & leaves you with a sense of wanting to learn more about certain particulars. We learn of the Irish rebellion & where the hatred of Frenchmen by the Germans arose as the former laid waste to large swathed of the German speaking lands. In the North & the East we see the fall of the Swedish Empire overseas with the main benefactor being Muscovy (Russia) & to a lesser degree the various German states. It’s a bit of a whistle stop tour of the campaigns but I believe this author has the balance jus right.

Chapter 12 starts from Nystad & takes us through to the French revolutionary wars (1787) & is termed a period “The second hundred years war” for no sooner has the ink on the treaty of Nystad dried there “at it” all over Europe. The power struggle between the Empires is great to read & with the short paragraph & concise style its easy to comprehend the machinations & sub-plots over the dynasties of Europe. The ambition of Spain (In the Italian provinces) is first checked by the combined forces of Britain & France who firmly put them in their place & we see the decline of the Spanish power in Europe. France (yet again) makes a move through German provinces whilst Fredrick (The Great) captures Silesia from the Austrians via a series of short sharp conflicts. Come the middle of the century Europe is left with only a pentarchy of states capable of inflicting change on Europe, namely Britain, France, Austria, Prussia & Russia. AND it’s not long before they are at war with each other which is retold gloriously in the section “The fall of France: The 7 years war” which has Austria at the centre of the shenanigans (with its heart set on retaking Silesia from the Prussians) educing France to ally with its centuries old enemy in order to gang up on Fredrick the Great of Prussia along with Russia, the Brits siding with the Prussians in a war which not only flows across the centre of Europe but reaches to India & the Americas. The war is far reaching as other combatants, Saxony-Poland, Sweden, Spain & the German states are also embroiled. Its a very informative & concise 13 pg section which goes a long way to painting the lay of Europe come the late 1750’s. In the East we see the rise of Russia & their expansionism at the expense of the Ottoman empire, where all the French can do is bluster now that the Austrians have a pact with the Russians. Finance & government debt is examined & goes a long way to explain how France’s power is declining as it sinks further into financial ruin due to its absolutist monarchy having to absorb it all compared to say Britain which has the Bank of England to absorb that function.

The Final chapter sees us in the period 1787-1815 with “The French revolutionary wars & Napoleon” which i’ve studied (many years ago) at A-Level so it was good to have a refresher of events, they being told in a clear succinct way giving enough information to attain the nuances for anyone who hasn’t read about this period before. So much happened in this period it would be difficult to capture it all but again the author impresses in how he imparts his knowledge to the reader. The size of the armies in this period is massive, with Napoleon starting conscription the other powers eventually follow by arming their peasants. So many fundamental changes occur in this final period of warfare as do the politics of the big 5, in particular Prussia & Austria who finally come together along with the major powers (come 1815) of Britain & Russia.

We finish with a short section “Conclusions”, then a fair few books for “suggested reading”

All-in-all a thoroughly good read which kept me entertained throughout, a proper narrative as compared to others in the series & the author did the period justice leaving you the reader with a good understanding of the development of Europe & her peoples during the period.
Highly recommend with 4.5 stars rounded up to 5

[Dave Schoettinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason that many people will tell you how much they dislike history is that it consists of a seemingly endless list of monarchs, wars, battles, and attempts to explain the significance of each. Professor Blanning goes through such a list, at times almost apologetically, but confines it to the final quarter of the book. The first three-quarters discusses some of the more prosaic aspects of the period 1648-1815, such as how people made their living, how they related to their fellow human beings, and to some extent what they were thinking about. For instance, his description of the commitment of upper class males to the sport of hunting makes the current infatuation of American seniors with pickleball seem like mild indifference by comparison.

I was particularly fascinated by his treatment of the changing attitudes toward faith and superstition that is usually referred to as "The Enlightenment". As the author explains, there were actual changes going on, but they were, for the most part, confined to a small proportion of the population. Obviously, anyone attending a contemporary Trump Rally will have no difficulty believing that this still the case.

The hardcover, which I found in the local library, runs 677 pages and the author assumes some basic knowledge of European history on the part of the reader. If you are a person who upon hearing the word "Waterloo" immediately thinks of Abba, you may not want to commit to this book.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thorough, engaging and informative history: it takes on a lot (more than 150 years of history in a whole slew of countries, in 677 pages), and does an excellent job with it, offering interesting detail, analysis and quotations by contemporary observers.

Interestingly, the book is organized topically rather than chronologically or geographically. The first section discusses transportation, population and daily life, the economy, agriculture and the status and rebellions of peasants. The second discusses rulers and governments in various countries and the overall trends under their reigns, as well as political trends and reforms. (Blanning seems to incline toward a "great man" view of history.) The third is about culture: religion, royal courts, art and the Enlightenment. And the final section is all about wars and diplomacy. It’s a successful organization that allows the author to delve into each topic, observing how it manifested in various countries, without getting too caught up in the “traditional” history of battles and so on (though after reading the final section it was hard to imagine how anyone managed to get anything else done with all this constant fighting!). He's much more focused on drawing the meaning out of history than just telling us what happened when.

Unsurprisingly given the number of countries in Europe, all do not get equal treatment. There’s a lot about France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, Prussia and Russia. There’s some information about Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. There’s very little about Scandanavia, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark or Poland, and the part of Europe under Ottoman rule at the time might as well not have existed.

My real complaint about the book is that it doesn’t cite its sources; I realize this is a synthesis, and sources are sometimes referenced in the text itself, but this is still bad form in nonfictional writing.

Overall though, a very informative book that manages to relate large amounts of history through engaging narrative and well-reasoned argument. I recommend it.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Blanning's magisterial survey of Europe between 1648-1815 was superb. Not only is it a great summation of this tumultuous period in the development of European nations, but the greatness of this book is in the ability to also delve into the lives of ordinary people as well.

While you read of the great evolutions, and revolutions, that occur during this time, Blanning will also answer important questions such as how did the ordinary people live their lives? What was their understanding of the world? What did they buy? What did they eat? How did they pray? What were their loyalties and their values? Not only the ordinary people, but also the their Rulers, all will go through tremendous changes in this period.

It is striking that this history begins with topics like witch burning in 1648 and ends in 1815 with that very same ancein regime under severe pressure and dissolution. That in 1648 belief in the Earth as the center of the universe was quite normal, yet by 1815 even the most conservative circles knew this was a discredited idea. In 1648 people used to ring church bells and pray to ward off storms and by 1815 lightning conductors were being installed.

Thus this book highlights how humanity moved from a mindset of the feudal old world to a new world of classes, capitalism, and democracies. A fascinating read, never boring, where not only is it full of information and cool tidbits, it also gives readers a superb understanding of this tumultuous period bookended by the Treat of Westphalia and the end of the Napoleonic Wars. A great addition to my history library. Highly recommended.

[Elentarri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative but bland and tedious. The book is a survey of various social, economical and political aspects of various European states from 1648 at the end of the 30 Years War to the end of the Treaty of the Congress of Vienna (i.e. the final exile of Emperor Napoleon I).

The narrative structure is vague and lacks some sort of overarching, cohesion. The organization of the book into thematic blocks (rather than geographically or chronologically) doesn't make for a pleasant reading experience. The various themes come across as detached from each other and it's not always clear where everything fits in and what events influence each other. The author also assumes the reader is fairly knowledgeable about this period of "European" history (i.e. mostly British with a fair amount of French and not so much Habsburg or Prussian and even less of everyone else's history).

This is not a book I would recommend for the casual reader.

Note: The book includes a handful of maps, but a time line would have been even more useful/helpful. There are no end notes or references, just a bibliography.

[Simon Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

EUROPE 1648-1815

Tim Blanning may not be personally in pursuit of glory, but judging by the back page blurb he has achieved a good deal of it. The man at the Sunday Telegraph read it with his "jaw permanently dropped in admiration" - at the Sunday Times it was "let the nations rejoice . . . a truly glorious book" - "Sparkling" intoned the Guardian. Appetite whetted with all this praise I plunged into the book. Alas, between the hype and reality there is a gulf.

"The Pursuit of Glory" starts off reasonably well. Part one covers what might be labelled the Socio-Economic sphere, though without enough discussion of the economic side of it for my taste. The section that contemplates whether an industrial revolution happened in Britain or not, never seemed to get its teeth into the subject, and I felt that Blannings judgement was pre-ordained; he doesn't seem a great fan of revolutions, whether they're Industrial, English (1640's and 50's) or French (1790's).

The second part "Power" is a tolerable discussion of "Rulers and their Elites" and "Reform and Revolution" especially if you are up to coping with a regular bombardment of names from the various Royals and their noble (or otherwise) flunkies. This brings us to the third part, "Religion and Culture" and I presume this is where the claim that the book is "provocative" is rooted. I certainly felt seriously provoked while reading a thirty-page chapter on hunting including statistics of the kills of various notables of the era. The book ends with a hundred and fifty pages of warfare.

One thing that I found surprising is that Blanning only incidentally mentions Europes over-seas Empires. Why on earth have thirty-pages on hunting (followed by forty-pages on elite architecture) and not deal with the Imperial issue in anything like a systematic manner? Given that this is a crucial factor in the period's history at the European and Global level, this has to be marked down as a serious omission. Another source of irritation was the register Blanning writes in: essentially conservative, complacent and well pleased with itself.

"The Pursuit of Power" is a book that left me under whelmed and without any feeling that I had gained any great knowledge or insight into the age. Not the nicest of feelings after slogging through 677 pages in search of an understanding of European history during an important era. Not one that I'd recommend.

[DS25 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro seminale sulla storia della 2° parte dell'età moderna. Non c'è tema che non venga sviscerato, con una bellissima parte evenemenziale alla fine. L'unico dettaglio che si può contestare è il fatto che per dare conto di tutto si finisce per ignorare le realtà locali, in particolare quella italiana (presenza ridotta al lumicino, non del tutto incomprensibilmente).

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! A sublime piece of non-fiction. It’s taken me four months to work my way slowly through it.

[Frank Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

The period from 1648 to 1815 was the crucial pivot in European history, the point at which Europe went from being an economic backwoods riven by religious wars, to the clear military and economic center of the world (albeit, now riven by great power conflicts). Tim Blanning handles all aspects of this period with intelligence and brio, and shows how and why Europe changed, and how it didn't.

For one, Blanning shows that if anything Europe was becoming more religious in this period. Up until 1750, there was a "monastic renaissance," with monasteries owning about a fourth of the land in Bavaria and Austria, and dominating Italy (despite Innocent X in 1652 closing those with less than 6 monks). It was in fact their growing power that led to a reaction against them and the Church in the last half of the 18th century, first after Joseph I of Portugal, following an assassination attempt, expelled the Society of Jesus in 1758, which was followed by France 6 years later, and by 1773 by the pope himself suppressing this powerful holy order. As Blanning puts it, the outposts were now taken, so the full assault against the churches began. Louis XV established a commission that closed almost 500 houses, and Joseph II of Austria wrote a plan to close all orders. The secular control of elections to bishoprics and chapter heads also accelerated. In this view, the French Revolution's attack on religion was only part of the general trend that had been gaining speed over the previous decades.

Blanning doesn't start his narrative with such religious and secular realpolitik, however, but with the seemingly mundane issue of transportation and communications. Yet as he shows, this revolution in travel did much to precipitate others. For one, most states in the early 18th century were incoherent collections of individual powers and princes, with little communication across them. It wasn't until 1775 that Joseph II abolished all internal tolls, except for road upkeep, in his hereditary Hapsburg lands, and not until 1793 that the tiny Papal States did the same. In Spain, Castile, Basque country, Navarra, Aragon and Andalucia all collected their own tolls and customs. In France territories like Alsace-Lorraine had free trade with other countries but not with the "country" to which they were a part. Some estimated that up to 1 out of every 100 French people were smugglers, despite minister Colbert's best efforts to both suppress the trade and end the tolls. Government's efforts to standardize and break down these barriers, under the new theory of singularly inherent "sovereignty," opened up travel and started to unify nations. As nation's unified taxing power, they also expanded building. Colbert's creation of "commissioners for bridges and highways" alongside provincial intendants, and his construction of special "royal roads" across the nation, was part of an essential trend in this era (although, as Adam Smith pointed out, the French roads tended to be built to impress aristocrats, instead of spread trade as the turnpikes in England). It was along such roads that the French revolutionaries traveled to form a new "united," liberal, egalitarian nation, an idea was later carried across much of Europe, with bottomless bloodshed, by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The book is filled with such little stories that add up to a greater whole. Blanning does an infinitely better job than I could here though weaving them into a complete narrative. He gives the reader a panoramic "vedute" (early modern birds-eye painting) of Europe in this crucial period, which continually amazes and informs.

[Geevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Blanning has written an excellent political, social and military history of the period which saw great change and challenge for rulers and their citizens.

As other reviewers have said it is not necessarily an "easy" read as the detail of the author's work is substantial and the period and scope wide. However, Mr Blanning does the general reader such as myself a good service as he recognises that statistic after statistic is both a challenge and not that interesting, and so frequently provides an example of facts and figures that are easy to assimilate and that he outlines as being representative of the detail.

There are four parts to the book: Life and Death; Power; Religion and Culture and War and Peace.
I found the first and last the most readable. Life and Death was so very well written in terms of telling a story of how people lived and died. In a serious history book telling a story can be at times prove difficult but Mr Blanning does it so well.

One piece of information I found revealing in Mr Blanning's conclusion was the following "Relative to population, seven times fewer men died in battle in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth".
When one considers the wars of the 19th century, short though they were, such as Waterloo, Crimean War, Franco-Prussian, Wars of Italian independence to name a few this was surprising to me.

My copy was a 2008 penguin paperback and the 5 maps and 30 illustrations were of a good quality, as one would expect from this publisher.

In summary this book is a challenging but highly rewarding read of a period in Europe's history that saw people change their countries, states and continent in the most dynamic and far-reaching ways.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

1648-1815 was the time when Europe reached out for world resources but stilled focus on neighborhood squabbles. A time of monarchs, revolution and recovering from the wars of religion. Blanning depicts the lives of ordinary people and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon), and explores an era of almost unprecedented change, growth and cultural, political and technological ferment that shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

Why I started this book: History audio books are the best.

Why I finished it: Massive. And fascinating to contrast the daily lives of aristocrats (hunting) with the daily life of their subjects. Differences in tax structures and how that affected infrastructure and roads in various European kingdoms. 1648-1815 was a time of palace building, and Blanning pointed out that a good rule of thumb was the more elaborate the palace the less secure the monarch, as they were building monuments to overawe and establish their security and majesty.

[Xander · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book in this series, better than most of the ones I have read so far. Blanning chooses to explain the period involved by zooming in on different aspects of the lifes of people, the cultural developments of the period and most important of all: the military campaigns of the different powers involved. This creates a broad, interesting story; at some moments Blanning diverts from the main road, but always in an interesting way and with appealing examples.

Blanning starts the book by offering a wide view on economy, agriculture and communication (among other things) and explains the developments in the more important regions (Prussia, Great Brittain, France) but he chooses to contrast this with developments in lesser know regions (Dutch Republic, Italy, Russia). Towards the end of the book, Blanning loses this wide scope and mainly focuses on just three of the main powers (Great Brittain, France, Austria). This was a slight disappointment: I found the information on lesser known regions one of the strengths of the first half of the book.

On the other hand, Blanning succesfully works his way through a very difficult job: describing the major events and developments throughout 17th and 18th century Europe, without losing himself in summations of facts (something that kills some of the earlier books in the series). He tells the main story and chooses to illustrate the topics with just some appealing examples; he also clearly states on which historical interpretations the scientific debate isn't settled (yet). This gives the book a scholarly feel.

After reading this book, one gets a very clear impression of the period 1648-1815 - the key players and the main events. One also learns (Blanning's main message) that there's no clear one-way approach to history: describing 17th and 18th century Europe demands a pessimistic as well as an optimistic approach. It's almost some sort of scientific Hegelianism. There were no revolutions (agrarian, industrial, cultural), just sped up evolutions; there was no single Englightenment, just different, local movements to attack superstition and base policy on reason; there was no religious eradication, one could even say there was a religious rejuvenation.

One of the key insights I gained, is that the French Revolution started off as a liberation movement, but quickly turned into a killing frenzy (The Terror) and this politicization of liberalism led to the vulnerability of exploitation by ambitious individuals (Napoleon). One man's hunt for glory led to 23 years of war with more casualties than the First World War. The roots for this problem lay in the royal power politics of post-Renaissance Europe - and would sadly continue up to 1945. (Interestingly, communism has the exact same history as Enlightenment-liberalism: the corruption of sympathetic ideals into power struggle and terror, leading to deaths of millions).

Another key insight is that plain liberalism (i.e. let the people decide for themselves) doesn't work. Without governments enforcing the end of with trials of the end of war crimes/genocides, we wouldn't be where we are today. (And not really the topic of the time covered, but anyway: without governments enforcing laws on companies, workers would still be exploited - in big parts of the world they still are). This book made me (as a liberal) appreciate the power of politics more than before.

[Philipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing - and part of a longer series I didn't know existed before, now I have to read all of those, thank you very much, I'll just stop pretending to be an adult for 7 months, and then go back to pretending, I guess

So here we have 1648 - 1815 (maybe I should have started from the beginning?), an era which connects several of the major events of European history - the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, etc. The wonderful thing here is that the book isn't a straightforward history with tedious listings of events for each year; instead, we get a serious of connected essays tracing the development of a certain theme, like transport, or agriculture, or from a culture of feeling to a culture of reason and back, etc. This doesn't always work perfectly, sometimes I got confused when a new subchapter "resets" the time to 1648, but it's a great boon to readability (the two parts on agriculture and transport were surprisingly the most mindblowing ones, to me at least).

The author goes to great pains to make sure to show you that there's always at least two perspectives - the Enlightenment wasn't just that everybody went to bed and blam! woke up as snarky French critics of the church, since the same time saw a large growth in monasteries and churches. The transitions of kings-as-states to sovereign nation states saw a decline in power for the pope, yet religious feelings were more popular than ever. Was the industrial revolution driven by invention, or by a drastic change in consumers' demands? Can you even answer these questions? To quote: "As this book has tried to show, neither of these narratives is valid in isolation. There is no obligation to accept one or the other in its entirety: a selection can be mixed and matched according to individual taste."

There's so much here, it's just dense with interesting and well-prepared information, here's an interesting observation which in my opinion fits the current atmosphere of a "post-truth" public sphere which focuses more on feelings than on facts, quoting Schiller:

Enlightenment by means of concepts could not influence the character of mankind, for most humans are moved to take action by their feelings. So the seeds of rational perception will wither where they fall unless the soil has been prepared by the emotions and imagination: ‘The way to the head must be opened through the heart.’ And that was the task of aesthetic education, to pave the way for the transition from ‘rule by mere forces to rule by laws’.

I feel that this is important - in the last 20,30,40 years we as "Western society" have shifted our view of what constitutes a "citizen" not as a participating member of society, but as an excellently-trained employee. "The seeds of rational perception" have stopped withering since they don't even get a chance to touch the ground. "Aesthetic education" is dead, but I'm not sure whether this is the only way to go about it...

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Blanning has offered an excellent general popular history of 18th century Europe that contains some original ideas. The 3 stars here refers to the rushed state of the book itself rather than the content, which is usually very good. The book needs a proofread: the chapters and sections often had little to do with the subject, and he frequently repeats points or entire quotations. Most importantly, the book needs some form of basic citations at least; despite its being a popular history, Blanning frequently cites this scholar or that without naming where to find them.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to do justice to the breadth and depth of this book. Blanning keeps it all under his control and never loses the thread of narrative. Covering what he sees as the five revolutions of the period (French, American, industrial, scientific and romantic), he weaves them all together into a fascinating whole.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

La sexta edición de este viaje por la historia de Europa de la serie “The Penguin History of Europe” de la editorial Penguin, nos lleva por el convulso lapso comprendido entre los años 1648 y 1815; de la mano del historiador Tim Blanning, profesor de Historia Moderna de la Universidad de Cambridge. "The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815" cubre el período de tiempo donde Europa pasó de la Paz de Westphalia en 1648 y que ponía fin a la “Guerra de los Treinta Años” (el primer conflicto que involucró a masivos ejércitos de la mayoría de potencias europeas); hasta el “Congreso de Viena” que restauraba la paz y el orden luego de las guerras napoleónicas en 1815. Dos procesos de paz y restauración que enmarcan nada más y nada menos que el abandono definitivo de la Europa medieval para abrazar la Edad Moderna y revoluciones tan trascendentales para el devenir humano como la revolución industrial, la revolución francesa, la revolución norteamericana y la revolución científica. Blanning opta aquí por abandonar completamente una narración cronológica o centrada únicamente en las guerras que se sucedieron durante estos siglos – que son bastantes – para abordar la exposición histórica a través de una descripción temática partiendo desde una interesante y sorpresiva tesis: Las comunicaciones y la mejoría en las carreteras europeas (que en su gran mayoría, eran las mismas que habían construido los romanos hacía 1.500 años), lo que permitió no sólo conectar ciudades con mayor rapidez, sino también, permitir el flujo de personas e ideas que desembocarían en las revoluciones que dieron forma a la Europa moderna. A partir de aquí, el libro busca mostrarnos los desarrollos económicos, culturales, sociales y de política interna en los Estados europeos, así como las complejidades de la vida cotidiana y como la misma se fue adaptando a los acelerados cambios sociales que se presentaban; para concluir con una impresionante recta final donde veremos la relación entre Estados y las guerras que forjaron a Europa en los siglos venideros.

El absolutismo monárquico, las causas de la Revolución Francesa, la Ilustración, la guerra de independencia norteamericana (desde la perspectiva británica), el reinado del terror en Francia y el advenimiento de Napoleón I…. una increíble cantidad de hechos y personajes ocurridos a lo largo de menos de 200 años y que representan hitos en la Edad Moderna, son tratados con maestría por parte del autor y exhibidos de manera concreta y a la vez entretenida. Uno de los grandes exponentes de la colección de Penguin y una contribución valiosa para la comprensión de un período fundamental en la historia humana, además de ser un libro más que recomendado para quien quiera abordar la Edad Moderna europea desde una perspectiva global antes de adentrarse en temas más específicos.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815 by Timothy C.W. Blanning is a text on Europeam history during the so called "Glorious Revolution," which saw the rise of various political thoughts and theories, such as liberalism and republicanism, and the overall improvement of infrastructure, healthcare and human rights, albeit very slowly.

This text starts off and is organised in an innovative way. The first chapter is on transportation infrastructure, including roads, canals and the like. The following chapters each cover individual aspects, which Blanning charts by nation and over time. Instead of organising the text into time periods, the author goes into detail about the infrastructure, economy, people and social status of minorities to name a few. Hunting even has an entire chapter to cover it. I really enjoyed this aspect of the text. Each section was refreshing in the sense that it covered something interesting in great detail, but such detail might have been lost in a cut and dry chronological history text.

The text itself covers a fascinating time in history. We see the rise of Prussia and Russia, the dominance of Britain and France, and the floundering of Spain in this era. We see the Napoleonic conquests of Europe, and the religious schisms of Europe. The economy of nations begins to centre on taxation, manufacturing and trade in a more modern sense. Banking becomes a key player in the Dutch economy. Interesting as well are the social changes, where homosexuality is still illegal but widely practiced in Paris, or women begin to write about their oppression. Infrastructure is improved, stoking land and water trade across Europe. Everywhere there are popular revolts which depose Kings, install Emperors, or are brutally suppressed. Traditional Monarchists square off against republicans and Imperialists over multitudes of issues. This is indeed a fascinating time in European history.

A small complaint I have with the book is its overall lack of a source list. Blanning uses parenthesis to denote who wrote certain quotes, but does not necessarily source them. This has to be the most inexplicable crater of a source list I have ever seen, and I'm knocking a full star off of the rating just because of it. A text like this would benefit greatly from a source list that can push the reader into new and exciting territory, especially due to its innovative organisation and the way it covers smaller topics in depth. I was a bit disappointed in this texts sourcing technique.

Otherwise, this is an excellent and refreshing read on European history. It covers topics that are often neglected in history books in great depth, and has loads of interesting tidbits for the reader to learn or consider. For example, many reader may marvel at how difficult overland travel was in the past. Rain would often make travel impossible, and keep travelers stranded for weeks or months when it should only take a few days to reach a destination. The source list is a quite an issue in this text, but a reader who does not mind a lack of sources may be fine with it. All in all, a solid recommendation for a great and innovative history text.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

while it is fairly long and being split into subject parts which sometimes bog down into detail so lacking narrative momentum, this book is superb as a guide to understanding the crucial 1648-1815 period when our modern world came into being - there are tons of examples of where things stood in 1648 (from communications, to trade, to science...) and where in 1815 and how the gulf between such was arguably higher than between 1648 and the classical era of the Greeks and Romans

lots and lots of anecdotes enliven the narrative (there are newspapers excerpts, including some very funny marriage announcements from the 17th and 18th centuries, diaries, pamphlets, political works by famed kings like the Sun King or Frederick the Great etc) and while the political and scientific parts are fairly sketchy (these being the parts I've read a lot about), as mentioned I consider this just a guide to the era

lots of tidbits to put our modern era and its fears into perspective too (as a reasonable estimate, France lost some 15% of its population in the famines of the early 1690's - basically two consecutive poor harvests and two rough winters - the plague killed large fractions of the people wherever it popped up, small pox devastated everyone, commoners and nobility the same, while also as the period progresses, famines started being less prevalent - though still an issue up to the French Revolution, but much less devastating, plague essentially disappeared and smallpox was contained by vaccination, though the initial procedure was much riskier than the safe Jenner one discovered later...)

overall, excellent and highly, highly recommended

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lightly conservative overview, emphasizing better roads, aristocratic culture, continuing prevalence of absolutism and religion.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this more had I read it rather than listen to the audiobook. I could easily see myself giving this 3-4 stars had I read it. But the narrator was not my favorite and I suspect he made it seem dryer than reading in my own voice would have. That being said, I can't recommend this as an introduction to the period. The author drops a lot of period-specific historical jargon on the reader, assuming the reader will find the references meaningful. If you're fresh out of a college course on early modern European history, or if you read widely within this time period, you would indeed appreciate those references, but for an introduction to this period you'd be better served by the Great Courses on the Long 18th Century.

[Aneece · Rating 5 out of 5]

really, really good.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blanning In Pursuit of Glory

This book a great survey of the times covered. Another reviewer commented that the depth and breadth of the book is remarkable. This is a direct reflection of Blanning. As I read the book, I found myself marveling at Blanning’s ability to connect the dots of history. He’s very adept at tracing a theme across culture. Blanning frequently made references which were over my head and, although his vocabulary is large, his writing has a nice way about it - without pretense and very keen. My admiration for Blanning grew as I read. He is insightful and smart, and can be very funny.

I found this book a challenge in some regards. It is a general history covering a large geographic area and time frame. I enjoy biographies. Unlike a biography, this history book lacks central character to care about and has no chronology of a narrative. I’m just not sure how frequently I want to read period history books like this. In fact, once I was done reading it, I moved any book like this down on my reading list. And I don’t mean that as a knock against In Pursuit of Glory in particular, it’s just that books like this tend to be a bit of a chore. On the other hand, and after some reflection, reading In Pursuit of Glory rewarded me with a worthwhile and deeper understanding of the period.

Blanning’s knowledge and use of history and culture is awesome. Blanning is really good at tracing themes across the culture of the times. Blanning make his points by highlighting and connecting relevant events, art, architecture, literature, people, quotes, or anything else that might be pertinent. The diversity of Blannings knowledge is as impressive as his ability to use diverse aspects of culture to weave a fabric of history. Blanning might be making a point about commerce, for instance, but use architecture and the theater to make his point. The result is that he can pack information into his sentences and paragraphs. I had to stop reading and google topics often. For instance I stopped reading to listen to Bach, look at the frescos in the War Room of the Palace of Versailles, look at photos of the great hall in the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux, review maps of Europe, especially the central and eastern portions, read poetry, and read about philosophy, just to name a few. Authors who force the reader to read outside material can be maddening. But Blannings’ points were usually so smart and well-made that I didn’t mind doing the addition work to understand what he was saying. As a result, this book gave me a much better understanding of Europe during the time frame – and in a way that was really stimulating and enjoyable as well as challenging.

The following quote demonstrates Blanning’s ability to relate culture and history. Here Blanning provides the reader with the essence of the Baroque:

"The culture of feeling can be exemplified by Gianlorenzo Bernini’s multimedia creation The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa of Avila in the Carnaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, created between 1645 and 1652. As members of the Cornaro family look on from their box, as if in a theatre, St. Theresa experiences the vision she described as follows: ‘One day an angel of surpassing beauty appeared to me in a vision. He held in his and a long spear whose tip glowed as if were on fire. This he thrust several times into my heart so that it was penetrated to the very depth of my being. The pain was so really that I cried out several times, and yet so unutterably sweet that I could not wish to be spared it. Life can offer no joy which could give me greater satisfaction. And when the angel withdrew his spear I remained in a state of total love for God.’ It would be difficult to think of a better illustration of Sigmund Freud’s dictum that ‘a dream is a disguised fulfilment of a supposed wish’. It should also be sufficient warning to anyone naïve enough to suppose that , just because Christianity preaches against the sins of the flesh, religion and sexuality are opposed each other…Bernini’s creation is both spiritual and sensual, devotional and erotic. It is also theatrical, mobile, illusionist, transcendental, and organic: the quintessence of the Roman baroque."

Before reading this quote, I only though I knew what baroque was. Now I get it. As I read through my notes and go back to the text I see many wonderful quotes which I won’t repeat here, but cause me to recall my admiration for this author.

I am primarily interested in American history. In fact, I read this book because I felt I needed a better understanding of what was happening in Europe as I read American history from the same time frame. I got what I wanted, but also quite a bit more.

[Iggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I purchased two of the books from the Penguin History of Europe series, this one and the next installment by R. Evans, I had the same hope for it as for Oxford History of the United States series, of which I have read two books. Granted, the Oxford series of the US gives each author about 30 years to write about and about one country, a considerably easier task than writing about hundreds of years of the entire Europe. Nevertheless, I believe it's possible to write a book like that in a way that appeals to an average educated and curious reader, without inundating him/her with facts that have little to no relevance beyond academic or graduate paper research. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Blanning did with this book.
Very little of this book is dedicated to interesting and conceptual frameworks. There were some here and there, especially in the beginning of the book about communication and transportation during the covered time period. There was a somewhat interesting sustained discussion about whether industrial revolution was truly a revolution or not. And in the second half of the book, there was a sustained discussion of the enlightenment, culture, arts and music; although next to nothing about scientific revolution or development of law.
The most unfortunate aspect of the book is the constant dropping of names, places, dates, events and etc. - which truly becomes an inundation of facts without any relevance. It's as if the author was trying to impress his readers by providing as many names, dates and places as possible. This would have been fine for a reference book, but in a narrative history, it was nothing but a distraction that made me skim some sections of the book and outright skip others.
As an example, the French Revolution had a very minimal discussion as it related to politics and ideas. Most of the discussion of the French Revolution was in terms of its revolutionary and Napoleonic wars - the most boring and the least interesting aspect of it.
The book is organized not by chronology, but by subjects. I understand it's difficult to organize 170 years of continental history strictly by chronology, but I think a chronological organization is better incorporated into one's long term memory and provides a better understanding of the period. With fewer facts, and more discussions of conceptual frameworks, chronological organization, even for a book covering over a hundred years, would have been best.
Lastly, Blanning's writing style is straight forward, relatively fluid and often witty. And this somewhat compensated for the often dry material in terms of its content. It took me 2.5 months to read it, but it could easily be cut down by 250-300 pages without losing any of the relevance for an average reader.
All in all, I am somewhat disappointed by this book and would not highly recommend it. But if you are a fast reader and don't mind skimming or even skipping some sections of the book, it could be worth a read.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding history of the period and part of an attempt by Penguin to produce a new definite set of European history books.

The book has four sections.

The first on Life and Death (Communications, People, Trade and Agriculture) is a brilliant social/economic history.

The second on Power has one chapter on the relationships between rulers and noble elites (like many of the other sections contrasting and comparing France, England, emerging Prussia, Russia, Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire) and a second extremely informative one on the emerging concepts of state, people and nation (culminating in the unity of all three in the French Revolution).

The third is perhaps the least interesting with a section on religion (where the author’s anti-religious biases are clear), one on hunting, the weakest on palaces/gardens and the most disappointing on the clash between the cultures of feeling and reason which despite being one of the author’s main themes for the period is more of a very brief art/philosophy history.

The final section is a political/military history of the period – pithy and if anything (and unusually for a non-fiction book) too brief at times given the whirlwind of alliances, rising and falling of great powers, frequent wars and even more frantic diplomatic negotiations.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent overview of the history of Europe in this time frame sucked me in from the beginning and never let go. It is really well written and managed to continue to stay fresh and interesting throughout (I learned this early on when he made a section about European roads much more interesting than I figured it would be). Blanning did an excellent job excerpting contemporary writing of this period, which contributed to a really good understanding of the people and times.

There were points in the book that Blanning did not give enough background to give a good understanding of events, but I understand that to keep this a one volume book much had to be left out. This is also not a deep review of Napoleon and his wars, instead deciding that enough has been written elsewhere on the subject.

[Tomáš Zemko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant work.
Never read better piece of 17th and 18th century history of Europe.
History writing at its best.
Highly recommended.