The Nineteenth Century Europe 1789-1914

by Blanning, T. C. W.

• ISBN13: 9780198731368
• ISBN10: 0198731361
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The complete Short Oxford History of Europe (series editor, Professor TCWBlanning) will cover the history of Europe from Classical Greece to the presentin ten volumes. In each, experts write to their strengths tackling the keyissues including society, economy, religion, politics, and culture head-on inchapters that will be at once wide-ranging surveys and searching analyses. Eachbook is specifically designed with the non-specialist reader in mind; but theauthority of the contributors and the vigour of the interpretations will makethem necessary and challenging reading for fellow academics across a range ofdisciplines.Europe changed more rapidly and more radically during the nineteenth centurythan during any prior period. A population explosion, a communicationsrevolution, mass literacy, secularisation, urbanisation, Imperialism - thesewere just a few of the many ways in which the lives of Europeans of every classwere dramatically changed. It was the century when most of the ideologies of themodern world - liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, socialism, and racism -came of age. Yet in some respects, especially international relations, there wasa surprising degree of continuity and harmony. In six pithy chapters experts onthe political, international, social, economic, cultural, and imperial historyof the period address and answer the big questions of the period.

Author Biography

T.C.W. Blanning is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	xi
Introduction: the end of the old regime	1	(9)
T.C.W. Blanning
Politics	10	(37)
Robert Tombs
The triumph of liberalism	10	(2)
Landmarks	12	(3)
The political bedrock	15	(8)
Politics and change	23	(5)
Ideologies and institutions	28	(5)
Diverging paths	33	(6)
Geopolitics	39	(6)
Conclusion	45	(2)
Society	47	(31)
Colin Heywood
Conceptualizing change	47	(4)
Liberalism, the `middling strata', and the competitive society	51	(10)
Socialism, the workers, and the cooperative society	61	(9)
Conservatism, the `upper strata', and the hierarchical society	70	(6)
Conclusion	76	(2)
The European economy, 1815--1914	78	(48)
Niall Ferguson
Apocalyptic visions	78	(4)
Quantifying growth	82	(3)
Explaining growth: labour supply	85	(4)
Capital	89	(6)
The spirit of capitalism	95	(2)
Other sectors	97	(7)
The geography of change	104	(14)
Consequences	118	(8)
Culture	126	(32)
James J. Sheehan
Modern culture	126	(1)
Institutions	127	(3)
Secularization	130	(4)
Science	134	(6)
History	140	(7)
Systems	147	(5)
Modernism	152	(6)
International politics, peace, and war, 1815--1914	158	(52)
Paul W. Schroeder
The Vienna system	159	(6)
The system undermined and overthrown, 1848--1861	165	(10)
The creation of Prussia-Germany, 1862--1871	175	(8)
The Bismarckian system in operation, 1871--1890	183	(5)
Imperialism and world politics, 1890--1907	188	(12)
The descent into the maelstrom, 1908--1914	200	(10)
Overseas expansion, imperialism, and Empire, 1815--1914	210	(31)
A.G. Hopkins
Ideology and scholarship in the study of imperialism	211	(7)
The European empires in 1815	218	(6)
1870: The struggle for the mastery of the world	224	(8)
Europe and the world overseas in 1914	232	(7)
Conclusion	239	(2)
Conclusion: into the twentieth century	241	(7)
T.C.W. Blanning
Further Reading	248	(6)
Chronology: the `Long Nineteenth Century', 1789--1914	254	(22)
Maps	276	(13)
Europe in 1789	276	(2)
Europe in 1815	278	(2)
Europe in 1914	280	(2)
European possessions 1830	282	(2)
European possessons 1878	284	(2)
The World 1914	286	(3)
Index	289