Providing a series of lively essays which reflect the skills that historians have to master when challenged by problems of evidence, interpretation, and presentation, this important new text covers the topics of France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia, as well as analyzing the themes of political thought, cultural trends, the economy and warfare, international relations and imperialism.

Six distinguished scholars, all of whom are regularly involved in student teaching, provide an authoritative student guide to the main contours of nineteenth-century European history when the continent's standing was at its highest and its influence spanned the globe.