The Ascendancy of Europe, 1815-1914

by M.S. Anderson

This new edition of the seminal and best selling history of Europe's century of global ascendancy includes a new introduction and bibliography. The carefully drawn discussions are pulled together and reinforced by a new afterword. Presented in a new textbook format and thoroughly revised throughout, the survey provides students with an invaluable guide to a notoriously complex period. Lucidly written and constructed as a series of essays, the text covers the political and economic balance of power, the mechanics of government, economy and society, states, nations, europe and the world, Armed Forces and war and romanticism, evolution and consciousness.

Reviews of the previous editionsAnderson's book is one of the few that explains economic, social, military, intellectual and colonial developments in a clear, precise and engaging manner.'Teaching History Packed with shrewdness, wisdom and well-directed erudition...invaluble to university students and teachers.' British Book News

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 19th Century

460 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Matthew Smith Anderson, known as M.S. Anderson, Professor of International History at the London School of Economics, 1972-85, was one of the most successful and influential historical textbook writers of his generation.

Thanks to his reading skill in Russian and several other languages, his treatment of Europe covered East as well as West, whereas previous books had often had (as he once mildly remarked) "a strong French emphasis".

Matthew Anderson was an authentic Scot. Born in Perth and educated at Perth Academy and Edinburgh University, after Second World War service in the RAF between 1942 and 1945 (as navigator, bomber crew) he returned to Edinburgh, completed his degree, began his doctoral thesis, on "British Diplomatic Relations with the Mediterranean, 1763-1778", and became an Assistant.

His departure in 1949 to an Assistant Lectureship at the London School of Economics thus marked a real uprooting, although he never ceased to feel a great debt to his Edinburgh teachers, above all Richard Pares. On Pares's advice, Anderson began learning Russian, and, after completing his thesis in 1952, embarked on his first book, Britain's Discovery of Russia, 1558-1815 (1958). Another of his Edinburgh teachers, Denys Hay, invited him to undertake the 18th-century volume in Longman's History of Europe, and thus led him to discover his métier.

Europe in the Eighteenth Century, 1713-1783 (1961) became a recognised classic, translated into French, Spanish and Italian, with new editions in 1976, 1987 and 2000, each embodying substantial alterations and additions. A briefer volume for Oxford University Press, Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1713-1789 (1966), also proved highly successful, especially in its North American and Spanish editions. By the time of his death, these two volumes together had sold not far short of 150,000 copies. Anderson had indeed "rescued the 18th century from long-undeserved neglect".

In 1972 appeared The Ascendancy of Europe: aspects of European history, 1815-1914. Two other less general books also secured wide readerships: The Eastern Question, 1774-1923 (1966) and Peter the Great (1978). Altogether he published 11 books with the needs of students in mind, and in every case his publishers (most often Longman, now Pearson Education) found themselves dealing with an academic who not only wrote superbly saleable copy, but even delivered it ahead of the date laid down in his contract.

He also published some 20 learned articles, and contributed two chapters to the New Cambridge Modern History and many more to multi-authored volumes, as well as writing in later years personal diaries and memoirs not for publication.

Important though writing always was to him, between 1972 and his retirement in 1985 his growing responsibilities at the London School of Economics took priority. Not only was he much concerned in building up the International History Department (of which he was Convenor in 1972-75), but from 1973 until 1981 he was heavily involved in the work of the school's Publications Committee, while in 1981-85 he chaired the Graduate School Committee, arguably the school's most important committee.

Reviews

[Dropbear123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Fairly old (originally written in 1972) textbook on European history from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the beginning of the First World War. It is thematic in approach, with each chapter covering the 1815-1914 period on different a topic. It also fairly traditional in the topics that are covered, international relations, domestic politics, nationalism (the best chapter imo), overseas colonialism and the motivations for it, the military technological revolution and the arts/ideology (I mostly glanced over this chapter). It is fairly more positive about colonialism than a textbook that it came out today would get away with.

For an introduction to the 19th century it does it’s job well enough and isn’t (by the standards of a textbook at least) too boring in writing style.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting introduction to the history of 19th century Europe and its acendancy into a powerful sphere in that century. It is quite often a set text for many British University History courses as it is an easy to understand way into European history. A good introduction but there are better books on the subject.

[Stennett Eberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! Fairly heavy-duty, but an in-depth, informative, positive look at the tremendous impact of Europe’s century (1815-1914) on our world today. It helps you understand what a watershed 1914-1918 actually was. No wonder they called it the Great War. It ended an era.