Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914

C. A. Bayly
Tracks the world’s past through a set of eras and linked major themes, looking at the way major political upsets spread beyond the boundaries normally assumed for world history. It’s particularly effective in showing the highly diffused nature of ideologies of revolution, and tying China directly into what occurs with Europe and North America much earlier than the standard political account does.

Has a couple of rough patches and doesn’t do quite as good a job as it could in maintaing continual engagement, but there’s an effective argument here well backed by organization of amassed detail. Good history.

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