Description
Book SynopsisA History of Modern Europe surveys European history from the defeat of Napoleon to the twenty-first century, presenting major historical themes in an authoritative and compelling narrative.
- Concise, readable single volume covering Europe from the early nineteenth century through the early twenty-first century
- Vigorous interpretation of events reflects a fresh, concise perspective on European history
- Clear and thought-provoking treatment of major historical themes
- Lively narrative reflects complexity of modern European history, but remains accessible to those unfamiliar with the field
Table of ContentsPreface: The Dilemmas and Rewards of a Concise Historical Overview xiv
List of Maps xix
List of Figures xx
Acknowledgments xxii
Introduction: What Is Europe? 1
“Christendom” and Europe 2
Geographical Definitions 3
Europe’s Unusual Seas: The Mediterranean and Baltic 6
Europe’s Unusual Races 7
European Languages 8
Europe’s Religious Mixes 9
The Differing Rates of Growth in Europe’s Regions 10
Notes to the Reader 12
A Few Words about the Further Reading Sections 12
National and Thematic Overviews 13
Biographies 15
Historiography and Bibliography 15
Further Reading (to the Introduction) 16
Part I Romanticism and Revolt: The Seedtime of Modern Ideologies, 1815–40 17
1 The Legacy of the French Revolution 19
France’s Preeminence 19
The Changes Made by the Revolution 20
The Revolutionary Mystique 20
The Opening Stages of the Revolution 21
The Causes of the Revolution: Precedents 22
The Ambiguous Ideal of Equality 23
Civil Equality for Jews? 24
The Many Meanings of Fraternity 24
The Revolution: Progressive or Regressive? 25
Further Reading 28
2 The Congress of Vienna and Post-Napoleonic Europe: 1815–30 29
A Uniquely European Meeting 29
The Major Powers: Goals and Compromises 32
Napoleon Returns: The Hundred Days 34
The Issue of Poland 35
Other Territorial Settlements 37
Accomplishments of the Congress: Short-Term, Long-Term 39
The Repressive Years in Britain 40
Metternich’s Repressions 41
Further Reading 42
3 The Engines of Change 43
Conceptualizing Historical Change 43
The Industrial Revolution and Its Preconditions 44
The British Model of Industrialization 45
Industrialization in Other Countries 47
Resistance to Industrialization 50
Technological Innovation and Industrialization 50
The Implications of Industrial Change 53
Further Reading 54
4 The Seedtime of Ideology: A Century of “Questions” 55
Europe’s Major “Questions” and Its Belief in Progress 56
The Elusive Genesis and Evolution of Europe’s Isms 56
Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism 57
Edmund Burke: The Conservative Tradition and Its Opponents 59
Feminism and the Woman Question 60
The Evolution of Liberal Theory and Practice: Radicalism and Utilitarianism 61
Classical Liberalism 62
Mill on Socialism and Feminism 63
Fourier’s Fantastic but “Scientific” Vision of Socialism 65
The “Practical” Socialist, Robert Owen 66
Saint-Simon, Prophet of Modernism 67
The Communist Tradition 68
Romanticism and Classicism 69
Further Reading 70
Part II From the 1820s to the Great Depression of the 1870s and 1880s 71
5 Liberal Struggles, Victories, Dilemmas, Defeats 75
The Revolution of 1830 in France 76
Unrest in the 1830s 77
Agitation to Repeal the Corn Laws 80
The Great Hunger in Ireland 81
The Darker Vision of Thomas Malthus 83
Again, Revolution in France 84
Reform in Britain: The Chartist Movement 85
Revolutions of 1848 and the End of Metternich’s Europe 85
The Republican Provisional Government and the “National Workshops” 86
Rising Class Conflict and the “June Days” 87
The National Question Outside France 87
Growing Divisions among the Revolutionaries 88
Further Reading 90
6 Nationalism and National Unification 92
Problems of Definition 92
Ideas of German Nationality 95
People, Language, and State: Herder and Hegel 96
Slavic Identities 97
Southern Europe: Latin Identities 98
New Power Relations in Europe: The Wars of Mid-century 99
The Unification of Italy 101
The Unification of Germany 103
Further Reading 105
7 Mid-century Consolidation, Modernization: Austria, Russia, France 106
The Habsburg Empire 106
The Russian Empire 110
France’s Second Empire 113
Further Reading 116
8 Optimism, Progress, Science: From the 1850s to 1871 117
The Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune 117
The Classic Age of British Liberalism 121
Britain’s Social Peace, Political Stability, and Economic Productivity 122
Liberalism, Population Growth, and Democracy 123
The Irish Question 124
Darwin and Darwinism 125
Further Reading 129
Part III From Depression to World War: The 1870s to 1914 131
9 The Depressed and Chastened 1870s and 1880s 133
The Spread of Marxism: Controversies about the Meaning of Marxism 133
The Development of Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Thinking 137
Russian Revolutionary Movements in the 1870s and 1880s 138
The Appearance of Modern Racial-Political Antisemitism 140
Antisemitism in Germany 143
The Weakness of Antisemitism in Italy and Britain 144
Antisemitism in France: Renan and the Scandals of the 1880s 144
Further Reading 146
10 Germany and Russia in the Belle Epoque: 1890–1914 147
A Rising Germany 148
Liberalism Challenged, Mass Politics, and the Second Industrial Revolution 148
The Influence of Friedrich Nietzsche 150
New Aspects of the German Question 151
The Evolution of German Social Democracy: The Revisionist Controversy 153
Russia under Nicholas II 155
The Appeals of Marxism in Russia and the Emergence of Leninism 156
The Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5 158
Revolution and Reaction in Russia, 1905–14 159
Further Reading 161
11 France and Britain in the Belle Epoque: 1890–1914 162
France in Turmoil 162
The Dreyfus Affair 164
French Socialism 167
Edwardian Britain 168
The Boer War 170
The Woman Question 173
Further Reading 175
12 The Origins of World War I 176
Growing International Anarchy, Hypernationalism, Polarization of Alliances 177
An Inevitable War? 178
The Role of Personality and Chance 179
The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand 180
From Euphoria to Stalemate Warfare 183
Further Reading 185
Part IV The European Civil War: 1914 – 43 187
13 World War I: 1914 –18 189
Stalemate Warfare in the West and Expansion in the East 189
1916: The Battles at Verdun and the Somme 192
1917: A Turning Point 193
Autumn 1917 to Autumn 1918: The Last Year of War and Germany’s Collapse 196
November 1918: The Balance Sheet of War 197
Further Reading 198
14 Revolution in Russia: 1917–21 199
A Proletarian Revolution? 199
The March (February) Revolution: Provisional Government and Soviets 200
Lenin’s Return: The Paradoxes of Bolshevik Theory and Practice 204
The Mechanics of the Bolshevik Seizure of Power 206
The Constituent Assembly 207
Civil War in Russia: The Red Terror 208
The Failure of Revolution in the West 210
What “Really Happened” in Russia between November 1917 and March 1921? 212
Further Reading 212
15 The Paris Peace Settlement 214
The Settlements of 1815 and 1919 Compared; the Issue of German Guilt 214
Popular Pressures, “New Diplomacy,” Russia’s Isolation 217
Wilson’s Role: The Fourteen Points 217
The Successor States and the Issue of Self-Determination 218
The Creation of New Nation-States: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia 219
Dilemmas and Contradictions of Ethnic-Linguistic States 220
Minority Treaties 221
League of Nations Mandates 222
Further Reading 224
16 The Dilemmas of Liberal Democracy in the 1920s 225
Containing Germany: The Weakness of the League of Nations, 1919–29 226
The Dilemmas of American Leadership: Isolationism 227
Reactionary Trends and the Woman Question 228
The Negative Impact of the Versailles Treaty: Undermining German Democracy 230
The Evolution of Liberal Democracy in Germany 231
Developments in the Third Republic 232
The Brief Rule of the British Labour Party 234
The Stock-Market Crash, November 1929: The Beginning of the Great Depression 235
Further Reading 236
17 Stalinist Russia and International Communism 237
Stalin and Stalinism 237
The 1920s: Lingering Dilemmas and the Industrialization Debate 238
Stalin’s Victory in the Struggle for Power 240
Stalin and the Jewish Question in the Bolshevik Party 242
Collectivization and the Five-Year Plan 244
The Blood Purges 247
1939: The Balance Sheet: Paradoxes and Imponderables 249
Further Reading 250
18 The Rise of Fascism and Nazism: 1919–39 251
The Origins of Italian Fascism 252
Mussolini’s Assumption of Power 252
The Evolving Definition of Fascism: Initial Relations with Nazism 254
The Spread of Fascism Outside Italy, 1922–33 256
Nazism: The Basis of Its Appeal 258
The Nature of Hitler’s Antisemitism 259
Hitler in Power 261
A Moderate Solution to the Jewish Question? 265
Nazi and Soviet Rule: Comparing Evils 266
Further Reading 266
19 The Origins of World War II and the Holocaust: 1929–39 267
European Diplomacy, 1929–34 267
Hitler’s Retreats, the Stresa Front 269
The Great Turning Point, 1934–5: Comintern Policy and the Ethiopian War 270
The Popular Front in France, 1935–9 273
The Spanish Civil War, 1936–9 275
The Era of Appeasement, 1936–8 278
Evaluating Appeasement 281
Further Reading 282
20 World War II and the Holocaust: 1939–43 283
Appeasement from the East and the Outbreak of World War II 284
The Opening Stages of World War II 286
War in the West, 1940 289
The War against Judeo-Bolshevism 291
The Turning of the Tide 293
Victories at Stalingrad and the Kursk Salient 296
Further Reading 297
Part V Europe in Recovery and the Cold War: 1943–89 and Beyond 299
21 Victory, Peace, Punishment: 1943–6 303
The Problems and Paradoxes of Victory 303
Planning for Victory 306
Personal Diplomacy and Realpolitik 309
Winning the War: Myths and Realities 312
The Ambiguous Peace 313
The Holocaust’s Final Stages: Vengeance 314
The Nuremberg Trials 315
Dilemmas and Paradoxes of Punishment 319
Further Reading 321
22 Europe’s Nadir, the German Question, and the Origins of the Cold War: 1945–50 322
War-time Deaths, Military and Civilian 322
The Unresolved German Question: Germany’s Borders 323
Denazification 324
The Two Germanies, East and West 326
Schumacher and Adenauer 329
Social Democrats vs. Christian Democrats 330
Postwar Austria 331
The Origins and Nature of the Cold War 331
Further Reading 336
23 The Mystique of Revolution: Ideologies and Realities, 1945 to the 1960s 337
The Revolutionary Mystique in the Immediate Postwar Years 337
Democratic Socialism in Western Europe: Great Britain 339
Democratic Socialism in Western Europe: Scandinavia 341
The Revolutionary Mystique, the Cult of Personality, and “Real” Socialism 343
Titoism and the New Show Trials 344
Stalin’s Death and Khrushchev’s “De-Stalinization” 345
Revolts in Poland and Hungary, 1956 346
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 348
East Germany and the Berlin Wall 349
Further Reading 350
24 The End of Imperialism, and European Recovery: 1948–68 352
European Exhaustion and the End of Empire 352
India and the Middle East 353
New Dimensions of the Jewish Question 355
“French” Algeria 358
The Vagaries of Historical Memory: The Role of the Cold War 360
The Establishment of the Fourth Republic in France 361
Restoring Liberal Democracy in Italy 364
European Unification: The First Steps 366
De Gaulle’s Vision: The Fifth Republic 368
Further Reading 370
25 Europe in a New Generation 371
Communism with a Human Face: Czechoslovakia, 1968 372
Young Rebels in Western Europe 373
France: The “Events of May” 375
Feminism in the New Generation 376
Further Reading 380
26 Détente, Ostpolitik, Glasnost: A New Europe 381
Shifting International Relationships: Frictions and Contretemps in the Soviet Union and United States 382
The Impact of the Oil Embargo of 1973: “Stagflation” 383
The Restive Soviet Bloc in the 1970s and 1980s 384
Poland and Solidarity 385
West Germany’s Ostpolitik: Management of Modern Capitalism 386
Gorbachev and Glasnost, 1985–9 389
The Disintegration of Communist Rule 391
From Mystique (1989–90) to Politique (1991–2012) 391
From Soviet Union to Russian Federation 392
The Unification of Germany 393
The Breakup of Former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia 394
Western Europe: From Common Market to European Union 394
Further Reading 397
27 Europe in Two Centuries: An Epilogue and General Assessment 398
Europe’s Evolving Identity 400
European Liberties and Toleration 401
The Irish Question 402
The Woman Question 403
The Social Question and the Role of the State 403
The Eastern Question and the End of Empires 404
The German Question 404
Americanization, Globalization, and the European Model 406
The Jewish Question 407
The New Enemy: Islam 408
Environmentalism under Capitalism and Communism 409
The Demographic Question and European Xenophobia 410
The Sovereign Debt Crisis: The Dilemmas of the European Union 411
Further Reading 411
Index 413
