Modern History: The Rise of a Democratic, Scientific, and Industrialized Civilization

by Carl Lotus Becker

look like a history book i had in the 4th grade, i,m 70

826 pages, hardback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Carl Lotus Becker was an American historian. He is best known for The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932), four lectures on The Enlightenment delivered at Yale University. His assertion that philosophies, in the "Age of Reason," relied far more upon Christian assumptions than they cared to admit, has been influential, but has also been much attacked,

Cornell has recognized his work as an educator by naming one of its five new residential colleges the Carl Becker House.

Reviews

[Edward C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't give Becker's book five stars simply because time and more modern data and means have shown some of his figures to be in error, BUT his book is a fantastic story of modern European history. Becker weaves the drama of the era as a master storyteller, and without any of the pomp of supposedly "objective" historians: Becker will tell you, for example, that Napoleon III started Crimea basically because he felt slighted that the other emperors of Europe didn't accept him as one of their own! Becker's allowance for the personalities that make up history is, indeed, a breath of fresh air. His arguments are generally solid and thoroughly explained. The maps and illustrations are helpful and interesting. The division sensible. And the tone is that of a grandfather in his porch rocker on a calm, lovely day telling his progeny their story.

This is my go-to text for my summer school history lectures.