Robert Gildea – Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914 – Paperback

This is a comprehensive survey of European history from the coup d'etat of Napoleon Bonaparte in France to the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo, which led to the First World War.It concentrates on the twin themes of revolution and nationalism, which often combined in the early part of the century but which increasingly became rival creeds.Going beyond traditional political and diplomatic history, the book incorporates the results of recent research on population movements, the expansion of markets, the accumulation of capital, social mobility, education, changing patterns of leisure, religious practices, and intellectual and artistic developments. The work falls into three chronological sections. The first, starting in 1800 (rather than the more usual 1815) follows the build-up of the revolutionary currents which were eventually going to erupt in the `Year of Revolutions' 1848.The second, from 1850 to 1880, deals with the golden age of capitalism, the successful culm