Author: David S Mason
Publisher: Orient BlackSwan
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 227
ISBN/UPC (if available): 81-250-4533-3
Description
Highlighting the key events, ideas, and individuals that have shaped modern Europe, this fresh and lively text provides a succinct history of the continent from 1789 to the present. Drawing on the enduring theme of revolution, David Mason explores the causes and consequences of revolution: political, economic, and scientific; the development of human rights; and issues of European identity and integration.
Fourteen focused chapters address such topical issues as the Enlightenment; the French Revolution and Napoleon; the Industrial Revolution; the theories and impact of Marx and Darwin; the revolutions of 1848, 1917, and 1989; the unifications of Germany and Italy; European imperialism; the two world wars; the Cold War; decolonization and its impact on Europe; the evolution and expansion of the European Union; rise of modern feminism and other social movements; post communist states since 1989; expansion and development of the European Union; and issues of immigration, nationalism, and ethnicity.
Written in an accessible and student-friendly style, this volume includes a timeline and glossary, and suggestions for further reading. The volume is further illustrated with maps, photos and political cartoons.
The author introduces students to important ideas and themes while allowing time for substantive use of other supplementary and primary materials. Students of history, political science, sociology, and any reader needing a broad overview of the sweep of modern European history will find this book indispensable.
Contents
List of Boxes, Illustrations, and Maps
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Revolutionary Europe
Timeline of European History
1. The Old Regime and the Enlightenment
2. The French Revolution and Napoleon
3. The Industrial Revolution and the Birth of Capitalism
4. 1848: The Peoples’ Spring
5. Marx, Marxism, and Socialism
6. Darwinism and Social Darwinism
7. The Unifications of Italy and Germany
8. The Age of Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa
9. World War I
10. The Russian Revolution and Communism
11. World War II and the Holocaust
12. Europe Divided, the Cold War, and Decolonization
13. 1989: The Collapse of Communism and End of the Cold War
14. The European Union: Europe United and Free?
Conclusion: Europe in the Twenty-first Century
Notes
Glossary
Suggestions for Additional Reading
Index