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I'm looking for recommendations of introductions suitable for a good high school studnet, or a college freshman. It's fine if the book also treats 20th-century European history beyond 1917. (Just to be clear, Hobsbawm is not introductory enough for this purpose.) Thanks for any advice you folks can share!
Strongly recommend: W. Doyle, Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914.
https://www.amazon.com/Barricades-Borders-Europe-1800-1914-History/dp/0199253005
Sorry, I misspoke. The book is by Gildea. Doyle is a historian of the French Revolution.
The relevant volume in the Short Oxford History of Europe, edited by Blanning.
BL: As I recall that is a collection of essays, and not aimed at beginners.
Not quite on target, since it misses the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, 50 years ago in the UK the textbook we used was David Thomson 'Europe since Napoleon'. Not exactly a firecracker but solid, dependable and readable. And it's still in print with good reviews on Amazon!
I don't know of a single volume meeting your criteria that covers just the "long century"; I'm not as well-read in history as I would like to be. If you are after a very concise overview of that period, then I suppose one option to consider is an excerpt from a single-volume overview of European history more generally. E.g. I read J. M. Roberts's *A History of Europe* when it came out in 1997 and learned a lot from it. It was written with an intelligent layperson in mind, which is good, though I did find the prose a bit plodding. In any case, its "Part Four" covers from 1789 – 1900 in 110 pages.
I've not read it, but in a similar vein, and much more recently (2019), there is Simon Jenkins's *A Short History of Europe*. Judging from the Google preview, it covers 1789-1918 in a scant 75 pages. Unlike Roberts (a historian), Jenkins is a journalist (currently a Guardian columnist). Make of it what you will in terms of its reliability; not having read it, I don't know. Being a journalist, however, I would bet that the prose is less dry than Roberts's prose, which makes it more likely actually to get read by a high schooler.
Both of those sources will be too short to convey any real depth of understanding of the period, of course, but perhaps they might be useful as an orienting overview that would then profitably equip the reader to pursue more in-depth, "academic" reading.
In a similar vein, a short overview that I have found useful to recommend to students is Robert Heilbroner and William Milburg, *The Making of Economic Society.* It does not focus on political revolutions whatsoever; its focus is just what its title suggests. That said, it gives a succinct account of the rise of capitalism, and its overview of the Industrial Revolution is a helpful one, in the "orientating" sense mentioned above.
Not a single volume, but I would have thought that the two volumes in the Penguin History of Europe would be a good place to start (they would be the sort of thing that English A level or first year history undergraduates might read): Tim Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815, and Richard Evans' The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914.
I am no history buff, but surely Eric Hobsbawm's books should get a mention here? 'The Age of Revolution' which covers 1789-1848, 'The Age of Capital' which covers 1848-1875, and 'The Age of Empire' which covers 1875-1914. I read the first and the last of these when I was an undergrad and thought they were great. (Can't remember now why I skipped the middle volume…) Though 'serious' history books, they are certainly accessible to interested non-experts and laypeople.
BL: Thanks, but as I said in the initial post, Hobsbawm is not for beginners!
I recommend the Richard Evans volume that has just been mentioned. A decent alternative is Michael Rapport's "Nineteenth-Century Europe," but I prefer the Evans volume overall.
Thanks for these responses, I'd be glad if any of you folks would weigh in further on the question of the level of these books: could a high school student or college freshman read them profitably?
I'm no expert but I enjoyed the college textbook that was assigned in my introductory European history course: R.R. Palmer's "A History of the Modern World." The title is misleading because the book is really a history of modern Europe. As I recall, this textbook managed to be both introductory and interesting. One problem: the book is broken into volumes that don't line up with your timeline (1789-1917). Part 1 covers ancient Greece to 1848; part 2 covers 1848 to WWII.
As per above, not aware of any single, high quality survey that covers the "Long 19th Century." Definitely recommend Evans' The Pursuit of Power for 1815-1914. The predecessor in the Penguin Series, Blanning's book covering 1648-1815, is quite good and it's latter half could be read with Evans to cover the period of interest.
I think these are appropriate for engaged high school senior/college freshman.
As an aside, a terrific book on the Napoleonic period and surrounding decades is Paul Schroeder's The Transformation of European Politics.
While Blannings and Evans could be read by a motivated high school senior or college freshman, the length/level of detail might be daunting. RR Palmer/Colton/Kramer (to list all the co-authors as of the latest edition) is probably a better substitute for gaining an overview of 19th century Europe, but it is expensive. I also enjoyed JM Roberts Penguin History of Europe which would be a cheaper alternative than Palmer. An entertaining way to gain an overview of European history is John Hirst's The Shortest History of Europe which offers a remarkably thoughtful survey in ~200 pages.
Beyond books, I highly recommend combing through The Rest is History podcast for relevant episodes – their current series on the French Revolution would be great to understand an essential precursor of 19th century European history.
I remember having listened profitably to the John Merriman (RIP) Yale Open Course, alongside his Norton history survey
https://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-202
The book and course are broader surveys, but they include the long 19th c.
Oh I'll also say: not as a substitute, but I highly recommend Mike Duncan's podcast series "Revolutions," which starts with the English Civil War and ends with the Russian Revolution.
Each of the two books that I have mentioned can be read quite comfortably by a freshman undergraduate and probably also by a high-school senior. Evans's book is very long, but the prose is highly accessible. Rapport's book is considerably shorter (though still long), and the prose is accessible but somewhat drier.
Brian, you owe it to your audience to write your own history of Europe in the long 19th century. Nobody could do it better.
BL: Ha! I'm not competent to do so, certainly not compared to some of the authors mentioned above. Maybe the history of 19th-century philosophy…
I was wrong about Thomson's Europe Since Napoleon. It DOES (despite its title ) cover the revolutionary period 1789 -1815, and it takes the story to the end of WWII, so in that respect it is slightly better than Evans' book, obviously its chief competitor. Is it okay for high-school students? Well it got me an A in my History GCE all those years ago, and most of my classmates were pretty happy with it. I also possess Evans' book and in my view Evans is a bit tougher going , though there isn't much in it. One thing I notice about Evans though – it is perhaps a bit better on colonial and imperial history. There is a saying of Kipling's: 'they know not England that only England know' and the same goes to a lesser extent for Europe generally in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. My recollection of Thompson – I no longer have a copy – is that imperial history is mostly 'noises off' or a backdrop to purely European developments. Certainly in the versions I've been able to access online there are less references to my adoptive country New Zealand than there are in Evans.
I don't know why you are asking Brian, but if you're thinking of something suitable for a young friend or relative I would advise buying both.
In my view, the place to start for an "introduction" — before opening a book — is the Britannica's entry on nineteenth century Europe, which was originally co-authored by Jacques Barzun and is available here:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Revolution-and-the-growth-of-industrial-society-1789-1914
It is trustworthy and provides a brief overview of the main themes that will be helpful before tackling a long work.
As for books, I second Gildea's Barricades and Borders, which is excellent and appropriate for a precocious senior in high school or first-year undergrad. It was as standard text in undergraduate European history courses when I studied fifteen or so years ago, and it still provides a comprehensive and lucid account of the "long century," even though it technically starts at 1800. It's well-organized, written with a young, sharp reader in mind, and, unlike Hobsbawm, doesn't assume a lot of background knowledge.
I can also vouch for Rapport's Nineteenth Century Europe. (Indeed, the entire MacMillan History of Europe series provides good introductory texts.)
Roberts' History of Europe (also known as The Penguin History of Europe), which others have mentioned, is also very good. But, in my view, it obviously covers a much longer timeframe, and, accordingly, I think it will be too synoptic for the reader's purpose.
I can't speak to Evans' The Pursuit of Power, but, generally, he's eminently readable and reliable.
It doesn't match up with the "long 19th century," but James Joll's 'Europe Since 1870: An International History' (orig published in 1973, and I think there might have been a subsequent edition) is good. After your young friend or relative has read one of the books mentioned above (or concurrently), I think he or she should consider Joll. The narrative has an eye for the telling quotation, covers developments in diplomacy, domestic politics, and intellectual history, and is accessible for a college freshman or motivated/capable high school student. Roughly the first half of the book covers the 1870-1918 period. And there is a chapter btw on late 19th-century European imperialism.
Langer's Western Civ covers that period.
https://archive.org/details/bwb_P8-ATP-187/page/n7/mode/2up
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