From the author of the monumental trilogy on the Third Reich, a reference book for Europe at a time when it dominated the rest of the world like never before and never again.

For the first time in one volume, a panorama of 19th century Europe: an era of national and social conflicts, from the fall of Napoleon to the outbreak of the First World War, from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to the unification of Germany and Italy, and from the Russo-Turkish wars to the turmoil in the Balkans.

Among the major themes addressed in the book are the end of aristocratic rule and the emergence of industrial society, the decline of religious faith and the rise of secular science and medicine, the journey of art, music, and literature from Romanticism to Modernism, the replacement of the punishments of the old regime with the modern prison, and the feminist struggles for equality and the emancipation of women.

Common to this broad spectrum of transformations was the pursuit of power in all areas of life: from the banker striving for economic power to the serf fighting to escape the authority of the landowner, from the engineer asserting society's power over the environment to the psychiatrist seeking to exercise the power of science over human nature itself.

Richard Evans' gripping narrative rediscovers the sense of awe and wonder that permeated this unique era, when rulers and the ruled navigated the uncharted waters of immense cultural, political, and technological changes.

It is the work of a historian at the height of his powers, essential for anyone trying to understand Europe, then and now.

Best Book of the Year by The Economist.