The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914

Historian Evans (emeritus, history, Univ. of Cambridge; The Third Reich at War) continues the "Penguin History of Europe" series following Ian Kershaw's To Hell and Back: Europe 1914–1949 with this volume that begins after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and recounts pivotal events leading up to 1914, the eve of World War I. In surveying the political, cultural, and economic landscape of Europe during this period, Evans focuses on everyday people, specifically the agrarian as the ruling monarch. With this fairly comprehensive and ambitious appraisal, Evans views this 100-year stretch as a paradigm for the demise of the status quo and the quest for more power on either a macro- or microlevel; whether it be for the aristocrat or the serf. In particular, readers are well served by the author's holistic and refreshing interpretation of these years on a socioeconomic scale.