During World War I, Americans and British were riveted by the invasion and occupation of Belgium. Over 5,500 innocent civilians were executed in August 1914, over 2 million fled to the Netherlands, France, and Britain, and the 5 million remaining in the country faced mass starvation. The great medieval historian Henri Pirenne (1862-1935) provides a detailed, gripping account of the occupation. He describes the hunger, the deprivations, the unemployment, the arbitrary arrests and deportatio...

**The dramatic story of the interconnected revolutions that shattered the old European order and transformed the continent“A fully nuanced portrait of a tumultuous year.” —Wall Street Journal**In 1848 a torrent of revolutions ripped through Europe. Crowds of working-class radicals and middle-class liberals in Paris, Milan, Venice, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Krakow, Munich, and Berlin toppled the old conservative regimes and began the task of forging a new order. Pol...

The Rise and Fall of Prussia by Sebastian Haffner (translated from the German by Ewald Osers; 60,000 words)Sebastian Haffner regarded himself as “a Prussian with a British passport.” In this overview of Prussia’s 170-year history as an independent state, he depicts Prussia’s evolution from a sensational 18th century success story – “a state based on law, one of the first in Europe” – to its absorption into the Third Reich where “the rule of law was the first thing ...

The Napoleonic Wars have an important place in the history of Europe, leaving their mark on European and world societies in a variety of ways. In many European countries they provided the stimulus for radical social and political change - particularly in Spain, Germany, and Italy - and are frequently viewed in these places as the starting point of their modern histories. In this Very Short Introduction, Mike Rapport provides a brief outline of the wars, introducing the tactics, strategies,...

The French call them 'the Dark Years'... This definitive new history of Occupied France explores the myths and realities of four of the most divisive years in French history. Taking in ordinary people's experiences of defeat, collaboration, resistance, and liberation, it uncovers the conflicting memories of occupation which ensure that even today France continues to debate the legacy of the Vichy years.

A reevaluation of Bismarck's motives and methods, focusing on the chancellor's rise to power in the 1860's and his removal from office in 1890.

"Tony Judt's elegant essay is a good place to begin discussion of these two large postwar questions: What is Europe? And where is it going?" — Michael Mandelbaum, Johns Hopkins University*"I am enthusiastically European; no informed person could seriously wish to return to the embattled, mutually antagonistic circle of suspicious and introverted nations that was the European continent in the quite recent past. But it is one thing to think an outcom...

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context. David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more power...

AT the opening of the nineteenth century the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation still existed, after a thousand years of chequered life. Long decadent, it was now moribund, however, and perpetuated only in name an august sovereignty which at one time extended over a large part of the European Continent. Diverse in race, language, religion, and political forms, having no common bond in administration, law, justice, or military organization, the many parts of the imperial dominion were k...

SINCE the death of Frederick the Great in 1786 the kingdom of Prussia has been a state of a unique type, occupying a special position both in Germany and in Europe. Since 1867 it has accomplished by its own methods a momentous task, the unification of Germany and the erection of a German Empire, under the presidency of the House of Hohenzollern. Since 1871 it is not without the justification of historical fact and present realities that when we speak of Germany we think of Prussia, and whe...

Post-World War II scholarship and films like The Sorrow and the Pity have frequently replaced the old Gaullist notion of widespread resistance, and cultivated the impression that the French may well have been a "nation of collaborators," embracing the dream of a new authoritarian order in France as embodied by the puppet Vichy regime of Marshall Petain, and hindering the network of the French Underground. From evidence gathered in France, Germany, and England, John F. Sweets has p...

Democracy under neoliberalism has become tarnished, as governments become disconnected from voters and pursue policies against the interests of the people. And yet the ideal of democracy continues to inspire movements around the world.Brian Roper refreshes our understanding of democracy using a Marxist framework. He traces the history of democracy from ancient Athens to the emergence of liberal representative and socialist participatory democracy in Europe and North America, throug...