This book is a thematic history of the world from the beginning of the age of revolutions to the outbreak of World War I, which dismantled the system of states and empires of the time.

By correlating historical trends and events that have been examined separately in national and regional histories, it reveals the close interdependence of political, economic, and social developments worldwide long before the supposed beginning of 'globalization' after 1945.

It thus tracks the 'multiplying effects' that critical events (crises, upheavals, revolutions, uprisings) had on a global scale, which took place not only in the emerging European and American 'core' of the industrial global economy but also in Asia, Africa, and South America, thereby influencing this core in return.

Re-examining the major themes of the 19th century - the rise of the modern state, industrialization, liberalism, imperialism, and the promotion of world religions - it highlights the increasing uniformities present in major institutions such as churches, markets, royal courts, state mechanisms, and justice systems, as well as in 'corporeal practices', that is, the ways in which people dressed, spoke, ate, and managed their relationships within family and community.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]