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A History of Modern Europe: From the French Revolution to the Present
The leading text, beloved for authoritative coverage and narrative flair
912 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
100 people are currently reading
1134 people want to read
About the author
John M. Merriman
31 books66 followersJohn Mustard Merriman was Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University. He earned his B.A. (1968) and Ph.D. (1972) at the University of Michigan. Merriman received Yale University’s Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize in 2000, and was awarded a Docteur Honoris Causa in France in 2002, and the “Medal of Meritorious Service to Polish Education” (Medal Kimisji Edukacji Narodowej) awarded by the Ministry of Education of Poland in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
December 30, 2013
Finished with this Leviathan of a book.
Quick warning: this is truly an academic history book, so don't go thinking you'll get Tuchman-esque writing and/or dramatic/epic representations of European history. This book is functional to the very last drop, but a great companion to your history book collection.
What you will get:
1. Good, concise writing
2. Writing devoid of pedantic and opinionated ramblings
3. A great general survey of modern European history
4. Good starting point for your research in general European history
What you will not get:
1. A deep dive to the causes of major European events (seek specialized books for that purpose)
2. Analysis, comparisons, additional academic commentary
If you...
Are an expert in the area...skip it.
Are a reader keen on brushing up on your European history...consider it as an option.
Are someone new to the subject...go out and buy/borrow it.
Quick warning: this is truly an academic history book, so don't go thinking you'll get Tuchman-esque writing and/or dramatic/epic representations of European history. This book is functional to the very last drop, but a great companion to your history book collection.
What you will get:
1. Good, concise writing
2. Writing devoid of pedantic and opinionated ramblings
3. A great general survey of modern European history
4. Good starting point for your research in general European history
What you will not get:
1. A deep dive to the causes of major European events (seek specialized books for that purpose)
2. Analysis, comparisons, additional academic commentary
If you...
Are an expert in the area...skip it.
Are a reader keen on brushing up on your European history...consider it as an option.
Are someone new to the subject...go out and buy/borrow it.
October 25, 2010
this is actually not a joke... I'm doing Merriman's self-guided European History class on Yale's open course site. it's not like i have anything better to do right now...
May 24, 2018
بدون قراءة مثل هذا الكتاب، لا يمكن فهم كيف تطورت مفاهيم يظنها البعض اليوم منزلة كاملة، مثل العلمانية والديموقراطية والليبرالية والاشتراكية والمواطنة والدولة الحديثة والقانون وحقوق الإنسان والمجتمع الدولي. قارئ الكتاب يمكنه أن يتتبع بين الأحداث العنيفة التي عصفت بأوروبا طوال تاريخها الحديث، ما بين الحروب والاضطهاد الديني والثورات، كيف نشئت مثل هذه المفاهيم لتلبية حاجات اجتماعية واقتصادية وسياسية ابنة بيئتها ووليدة تاريخها، إلى أن تبلورت في شكلها الحالي، وباعتبار المنطق التاريخي، لا يمكن اعتبار أن هذا الشكل الحالي هو الشكل النهائي والتام والكامل، إذ أن قواعد التطور الاجتماعي لا تزال تعمل على هذه المفاهيم، بعكس ما يدعي بعض السطحيين.
لا يمكنك قراءة هذا الكتاب دون أن يكون إلى جوارك كراس وقلم، فكمية الأشخاص والأحداث التي يتعامل معها، والمساحة التي تغطيها تلك الأحداث، والفترة الزمنية التي تستغرقها، لا تسمح بقراءة سريعة أو سطحية للكتاب. كما يجب الانتباه لكل حدث مهما كان ضئيل، فربما رسالة كتبت في فلورنس في القرن الخامس عشر، يكون لها رجيع في بريطانيا في القرن التاسع عشر.
تقييمي للكتاب 5 من أصل 5، لبساطة اللغة، وموضوعية العرض، شموله للموضوع.
لا يمكنك قراءة هذا الكتاب دون أن يكون إلى جوارك كراس وقلم، فكمية الأشخاص والأحداث التي يتعامل معها، والمساحة التي تغطيها تلك الأحداث، والفترة الزمنية التي تستغرقها، لا تسمح بقراءة سريعة أو سطحية للكتاب. كما يجب الانتباه لكل حدث مهما كان ضئيل، فربما رسالة كتبت في فلورنس في القرن الخامس عشر، يكون لها رجيع في بريطانيا في القرن التاسع عشر.
تقييمي للكتاب 5 من أصل 5، لبساطة اللغة، وموضوعية العرض، شموله للموضوع.
December 7, 2018
This is a textbook to a Yale course HIST 202: European Civilization, 1648-1945 by the author. The course is available on line. I already listened to the course several years ago and just now came across this huge and impressive tome that was just waiting for me for the taking, so I took it and I think I will read it. This page has a link to Professor Merriman's fine lectures at Yale. The lectures focus on some major events in this huge story.
My overall impression is that it’s a huge survey but does not get into details as the material is enormous. It was a completely worthwhile pursuit. The author’s 24 lectures that I followed filled in some additional material as it also focused on some more interesting events and individuals.
One of the first items I noted was that the Crusades have contributed to the destruction of the Eastern Empire which brought the world of Islam closer to Europe without the protective barrier that Constantinople provided while it was there. Sobieski’s turning back the Turks is mentioned on page 287.
“Utopian socialism” is defined on page 592 as “egotistic spirit of acquisition vs. gentle world of cooperation.”
I was impressed by the quote “make such machines of the men as cannot err” on page 399.
There is Delacroix’s painting “The Massacre at Chios” (1824) Greeks by the Turks.
Galicia slaughter of 1846 is mentioned on page 575. This is hard to find in history books but my father told me about it.
I am always horrified by the cruelties perpetrated during the Industrial Revolution in England. The Reform of 1833 prohibited work by children less than nine years of age and limited workday of children nine to twelve years to eight hours a day and forty eight hours per week and 13-18 years to 12 hours a day and 69 hours a week. (p. 665)
During the war of Piedmont-Sardinia with French help against Austria in Lombardy and the popes (Pius XI) the Swiss mercenaries recaptured Perugia looting the city and shooting unarmed civilians. (p. 714)
“Among immigrants and native-born workers in the US the most common form of social advancement was within the working class, not into a higher social group.” (p. 847)
Rosa Luxenburg (1870-1919) who was born in Zamość opposed Polish independence in 1918 and saw it as incompatible with socialism.
Fascists denounced who and what they were against rather than what they were promoting. (p. 1114) This is what is happening even today by about some losing political parties around the world.
My overall impression is that it’s a huge survey but does not get into details as the material is enormous. It was a completely worthwhile pursuit. The author’s 24 lectures that I followed filled in some additional material as it also focused on some more interesting events and individuals.
One of the first items I noted was that the Crusades have contributed to the destruction of the Eastern Empire which brought the world of Islam closer to Europe without the protective barrier that Constantinople provided while it was there. Sobieski’s turning back the Turks is mentioned on page 287.
“Utopian socialism” is defined on page 592 as “egotistic spirit of acquisition vs. gentle world of cooperation.”
I was impressed by the quote “make such machines of the men as cannot err” on page 399.
There is Delacroix’s painting “The Massacre at Chios” (1824) Greeks by the Turks.
Galicia slaughter of 1846 is mentioned on page 575. This is hard to find in history books but my father told me about it.
I am always horrified by the cruelties perpetrated during the Industrial Revolution in England. The Reform of 1833 prohibited work by children less than nine years of age and limited workday of children nine to twelve years to eight hours a day and forty eight hours per week and 13-18 years to 12 hours a day and 69 hours a week. (p. 665)
During the war of Piedmont-Sardinia with French help against Austria in Lombardy and the popes (Pius XI) the Swiss mercenaries recaptured Perugia looting the city and shooting unarmed civilians. (p. 714)
“Among immigrants and native-born workers in the US the most common form of social advancement was within the working class, not into a higher social group.” (p. 847)
Rosa Luxenburg (1870-1919) who was born in Zamość opposed Polish independence in 1918 and saw it as incompatible with socialism.
Fascists denounced who and what they were against rather than what they were promoting. (p. 1114) This is what is happening even today by about some losing political parties around the world.
September 9, 2021
Bitene kadar öldüm cidden ama oldukça kapsamlı bir kitap. Artık her seyi daha karmasık yorumlayacağım.
April 25, 2022
In 2009, with a very slow Internet, I watched this guy lecturing on European history in Yale and he suggested his own book as a course textbook saying he would be dealing with the parts from the French Revolution onwards.
In 2012, I bought a used copy of that book and started reading it. Then just dropped it because it was gigantic and too long, and I sometimes deemed parts of it unnecessary for me. This happened again in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
In 2022, I just said "I'm reading this book NOW!" When I started it, I was three books ahead of my reading challenge, now I am five behind!!! It's enormous, obviously just a beginning material and can be very helpful in figuring out which era / area of the European history you want to read more about.
Although it deals a lot with Central and Western Europe, it keeps going back to the margins which, in a broader context, are rather uneventful but it seems it sometimes fails to address the real tensions in Eastern Europe specially during the Tsar Regime.
The book brings up political, social, and artistic implications of the stories. There are quotations here and there to overdramatize the course of the book, which they do, but there are no references for most of them, which is sometimes very disturbing.
The book ends somewhere in the late 90s, so European Union, Euro and everything are just "if's" but then it harbingers some of the dilemmas in Europe which are now actually happening. It ends by saying Russia-Ukraine are going to have tumultuous years ahead of them; it does address the surging xenophobia and the rise of illiberal political forces. For people like us who are facing these issues, this book is a great place to historicize the current conflicts and have a better understanding of them.
It is also well-supplied with pictures, paintings, maps, graphs, and references. This is a sort of reading that I believe should be part of our high school education; it was overdue for me but I am glad I brought it to an end!
In 2012, I bought a used copy of that book and started reading it. Then just dropped it because it was gigantic and too long, and I sometimes deemed parts of it unnecessary for me. This happened again in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
In 2022, I just said "I'm reading this book NOW!" When I started it, I was three books ahead of my reading challenge, now I am five behind!!! It's enormous, obviously just a beginning material and can be very helpful in figuring out which era / area of the European history you want to read more about.
Although it deals a lot with Central and Western Europe, it keeps going back to the margins which, in a broader context, are rather uneventful but it seems it sometimes fails to address the real tensions in Eastern Europe specially during the Tsar Regime.
The book brings up political, social, and artistic implications of the stories. There are quotations here and there to overdramatize the course of the book, which they do, but there are no references for most of them, which is sometimes very disturbing.
The book ends somewhere in the late 90s, so European Union, Euro and everything are just "if's" but then it harbingers some of the dilemmas in Europe which are now actually happening. It ends by saying Russia-Ukraine are going to have tumultuous years ahead of them; it does address the surging xenophobia and the rise of illiberal political forces. For people like us who are facing these issues, this book is a great place to historicize the current conflicts and have a better understanding of them.
It is also well-supplied with pictures, paintings, maps, graphs, and references. This is a sort of reading that I believe should be part of our high school education; it was overdue for me but I am glad I brought it to an end!
April 13, 2018
To all lovers of History, a magnificent book is waiting for you. though what I didn't like that I was reading it just to know more about Spanish history but unfortunately it was max 10 pages out of 1324.
April 14, 2009
Much of what I know about Modern Europe is knowledge derived from John Merriman's "A History of Modern Europe" Volume Two textbook, chronicling the era from Napoleon to the 1990s, providing me with a great basis of the circumstances and effects of groundbreaking events such as, the rise of modern democracies, both World Wars, the Cold War, the Fall of Communism, and the rise of Iron Curtain states / Soviet Republics.
Volume Two is a heavy read (a semester's worth of reading at over 500 pages), but will leave you much more knowledgeable about Modern Europe and the underlying events, people, and cultures that make up its many nations.
I am inspired to take up Volume One, which covers the Renaissance to the age of Napoleon.
Volume Two is a heavy read (a semester's worth of reading at over 500 pages), but will leave you much more knowledgeable about Modern Europe and the underlying events, people, and cultures that make up its many nations.
I am inspired to take up Volume One, which covers the Renaissance to the age of Napoleon.
January 28, 2015
My AP Euro teacher's making us read this book and he showed us a bunch of Dr. Merriman's lectures from Yale University.
He always said he likes this text better than the others because it is much more detailed, but I find it pretty dry and hard to read.
God, imagine outlining it too.
He always said he likes this text better than the others because it is much more detailed, but I find it pretty dry and hard to read.
God, imagine outlining it too.
July 14, 2015
I absolutely love this book. Honestly, I think this book should be required reading for any and all serious history students. Great for both review and research in regards to Western civilisation between the renaissance and the present.
May 2, 2019
Great reference for any history teacher. Very dense, took two years on and off to get through but has lots of fun historical side notes.
August 12, 2024
I finally, finally finished this book. 1300+ pages of centuries of European history all together. By far the longest book I’ve read, probably one of the most difficult, but also one of the most rewarding reading journeys I’ve had in years. The book covers each century from the early 1400s up to the present day, with detailed chapters focusing on politics, economic and social changes, cultural movements, and military conflicts. You go deep into the minutiae of the centuries long conflicts of the Protestant Reformation all the way to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. I spent hours winding my way through the centuries, seeing each new conflict, each new development as another record in the ledger of history.
More than anything else, it gave me a newfound appreciation of how the layers of history build upon each other. I’ve known, abstractly, of momentous events and periods (the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Scramble for Africa, the rise of Socialism, the World Wars etc.), but it was quite another to learn about how interrelated they are. To understand how the events before them shaped their contours. This type of understanding can only be achieved by reading a single narrative like this that ties it all together.
I would have never understood that the French Revolution rested on Enlightenment ideals that were shaped due to the Scientific Revolution, and this growing understanding that man, through science and reason, could create mastery over his destiny outside of the Church. Furthermore, that the advent of this Scientific Revolution was deeply embedded with the Protestant Reformation, which was more accepting of scientific ideas outside of Christian dogma and promoted a much more individual relationship with God that was more amicable to the individual pursuit of reason and thinking. Of which itself was influenced further back by the Italian Renaissance which promoted artistic ideals that were rooted in an older Classical sensibilities that brought ideas outside of the Catholic Church to the fore of public consciousness.
You could learn this in a much shorter form, but it’s another thing entirely to get a deeper appreciation of all the events that occurred, and how these events are tied together into larger historical currents. It also gave me a very specific understanding of the feel of each time period through its detail. A qualitative understanding that is hard to appreciate when reading more abstractly about large movements of history.
For this, I can’t commend Merrimman enough for writing such an amazing resource. My only critique was the depth of the book changed depending on the century. Most of Merriman’s work was on the 19th century, and unsurprisingly, the book is weighted unevenly towards that subject. Some 500 pages are dedicated just to the 1800s, whereas other centuries got a much smaller treatment. Of course, the 19th century has been enormously influential on our modern world, but it still seems strange for it to be such disproportionally weighted.
This is a pretty common textbook which different European survey courses will use chapters from. The development of my understanding has been so transformative that that it makes me want to seek out more large textbooks like this to understand other topics. I am definitely going to try to find similar works about the Americas, China, India, Africa, and other places.
More than anything else, it gave me a newfound appreciation of how the layers of history build upon each other. I’ve known, abstractly, of momentous events and periods (the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Scramble for Africa, the rise of Socialism, the World Wars etc.), but it was quite another to learn about how interrelated they are. To understand how the events before them shaped their contours. This type of understanding can only be achieved by reading a single narrative like this that ties it all together.
I would have never understood that the French Revolution rested on Enlightenment ideals that were shaped due to the Scientific Revolution, and this growing understanding that man, through science and reason, could create mastery over his destiny outside of the Church. Furthermore, that the advent of this Scientific Revolution was deeply embedded with the Protestant Reformation, which was more accepting of scientific ideas outside of Christian dogma and promoted a much more individual relationship with God that was more amicable to the individual pursuit of reason and thinking. Of which itself was influenced further back by the Italian Renaissance which promoted artistic ideals that were rooted in an older Classical sensibilities that brought ideas outside of the Catholic Church to the fore of public consciousness.
You could learn this in a much shorter form, but it’s another thing entirely to get a deeper appreciation of all the events that occurred, and how these events are tied together into larger historical currents. It also gave me a very specific understanding of the feel of each time period through its detail. A qualitative understanding that is hard to appreciate when reading more abstractly about large movements of history.
For this, I can’t commend Merrimman enough for writing such an amazing resource. My only critique was the depth of the book changed depending on the century. Most of Merriman’s work was on the 19th century, and unsurprisingly, the book is weighted unevenly towards that subject. Some 500 pages are dedicated just to the 1800s, whereas other centuries got a much smaller treatment. Of course, the 19th century has been enormously influential on our modern world, but it still seems strange for it to be such disproportionally weighted.
This is a pretty common textbook which different European survey courses will use chapters from. The development of my understanding has been so transformative that that it makes me want to seek out more large textbooks like this to understand other topics. I am definitely going to try to find similar works about the Americas, China, India, Africa, and other places.
July 25, 2018
To keep this review short and intuitive - This is a book for someone who needs to have something about the general history of Europe that spans from the 1450s to the 1990s. This book covers a lot of history so details or extra elaborate processes and syntheses are not going to be present here. If you're a history student or a history enthusiast who needs a book to renew and look upon something from an example, the 18th century, then this book is going to be for you. However, if you're a specialist on Renaissance studies and early Modern European history then this book might not be useful for you.
December 30, 2025
This was probably the most even handed and readable history of Europe I have read lately. Davies' Europe, A History would give it a run but the two books are very different. This one is written as a textbook to accompany the Yale History 202 lectures which are available on YouTube. Very readable, many references, and shows an enormous depth of understanding of the subject. A bit daunting if you are thinking of reading it in one go, but used as it was intended as a springboard for other reading it is excellent.
July 7, 2020
Basically, I just wanted to better understand the history of, and current state of Europe and the rest of the world. For that, this book was great. It's intended as a college level text, so there's a lot of moving parts...names, dates, events, and it's not really a page turner (don't get me wrong, it's not poorly written by any means, it's just functional). But, it did what I hoped it would do for me, it gave me a great general overview of the last 500-ish years of European history.
November 26, 2019
A comrehensive reference for studying/learning about modern European history. Merriman writes both accessibly and authoritatively. It is also a hefty volume, which may be better for dipping into for specific chapters rather than reading from cover to cover. Nevertheless, it is an important text from an accomplished historian.
March 19, 2025
The entire book you get the sense that there is a certain bias with which Merriman is approaching history. And that sense is completely confirmed in the last chapter where he begins to rant about how anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton is a xenophobic racist.
June 14, 2019
Really good for a European history textbook!
July 20, 2019
An essential for the shelves of anybody with an interest in European history, and particularly those undertaking studies in history.
April 13, 2020
I had to read this for AP European History and my goodness it is long! Really helped though!
November 14, 2020
Literally a college text book. Learned a ton
March 21, 2022
One of the hardest books I have read. took me forever for my ap euro class
December 19, 2022
thank you merriman for making history classes more bearable
May 5, 2023
A great book that is written very well and contains all the essential facts of modern European history
June 12, 2023
Academic but a beautiful read.
abandoned
July 29, 2024Livre 100% académique, il faut donc s'accrocher pour sa lecture.
Want to read
January 12, 2026It seems I will be reading the entirety of this textbook
May 19, 2022
I read this book along with 3 high school students for an after-school AP Euro club. We all enjoyed the subject and the discussion and making fun of John Merriman's meandering narrative. Just when the text drones on, he inserts a random fun fact about a person or event that makes one chuckle or blush. We thought there was a lot of overlap in the chapters and it took us about halfway through the book before we caught the rhythm of the forward and back again of the text.
December 3, 2013
Oh god I finished. I read every page. Every, single, page.
Just give me a moment... I'll be okay...
okay... let's get started.
Well the book is high on information content but the writing itself is pretty poor, and quite a chore to slog through. The author has a weird habit of repeating words within a single sentence... something like: 'the german states... of the german states... than were in the german states...' I won't cite specifics, you see it nearly every other page and I think it helps emphasize one of the book's enduring themes: that of montonony.
The writing is also peppered with a fair number of complete non-sequitors, whose addition, I suppose, goes a long way to explaining the book's fairly weighty price tag. Facts get inserted into paragraphs on completely unrelated topics and introductory sentences sometimes have little bearing on what follows.. though this probably doesn't happen as often I think it does... it just leaves such an indelible impression when it does.
Now and then events are referenced completely out of order, giving things a sense of causation and direction that couldn't possibly haved existed. And some sentences even seem to directly contradict each other.. such as indicating that an overall economic trend was positive... yet continued to decline?
Still, if you continue to hit the book against your face for a few pages every day, you'll probably end up knowing a lot more about Europe than when you started out. You could probably also buy four other books for the same price, order a pizza, and end up knowing more.
Just give me a moment... I'll be okay...
okay... let's get started.
Well the book is high on information content but the writing itself is pretty poor, and quite a chore to slog through. The author has a weird habit of repeating words within a single sentence... something like: 'the german states... of the german states... than were in the german states...' I won't cite specifics, you see it nearly every other page and I think it helps emphasize one of the book's enduring themes: that of montonony.
The writing is also peppered with a fair number of complete non-sequitors, whose addition, I suppose, goes a long way to explaining the book's fairly weighty price tag. Facts get inserted into paragraphs on completely unrelated topics and introductory sentences sometimes have little bearing on what follows.. though this probably doesn't happen as often I think it does... it just leaves such an indelible impression when it does.
Now and then events are referenced completely out of order, giving things a sense of causation and direction that couldn't possibly haved existed. And some sentences even seem to directly contradict each other.. such as indicating that an overall economic trend was positive... yet continued to decline?
Still, if you continue to hit the book against your face for a few pages every day, you'll probably end up knowing a lot more about Europe than when you started out. You could probably also buy four other books for the same price, order a pizza, and end up knowing more.
March 19, 2015
This is the driest reading material I have had to deal with. Of course I've never had to read a textbook before so that really isn't a great description for the book. And it's so long! Like 1350 pages or something like that! And I'm only on page 760! Gaaah! Stupid AP European History book. This is going to be on my currently reading shelf for like another three months at least.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews