Product Description

The Pursuit of Glory brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in European history – from the battered, introvert continent after the Thirty Years War to the dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon. Tim Blanning depicts the lives of ordinary people and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon), and explores an era of almost unprecedented change, growth and cultural, political and technological ferment that shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33653 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph, 15 April 2007
Economics, social policy, medicine, culture, popular religion, the
position of women, the role of the Jesuits, the importance of hunting: it's
hard to think of a significant feature of human life that is not given
serious and well-informed treatment in this book. The result is one of the
most impressive general histories to have appeared for many decades.

Sunday Times 7 April 2007
Europe's early-modern history viewed from an Olympian height - a
grand, gripping and all-encompassing read.

John Adamson, Sunday Times, 29 April 2007
This work's most winning quality is the sense one has throughout
of being in the company of not only the most expert but also the most
congenial of historical guides, a man who is himself a perfect product of
the European Enlightenment: humane, rational, sceptical and with an
encyclopedic learning enlivened by a mordant Voltairian wit. Let the
nations rejoice: this history of Europe is a truly glorious book.

Customer Reviews

Took my breath away
Before having read this book, I was largely ignorant about this period (1648 - 1815) in European history. Now, having read Tim Blanning's amazing book, I think that on the one hand I not only know a lot more but, on the other hand, remain conscious that I've barely scratched the surface (the suggested reading-list in itself covers some 11 pages, in small typescript) .

Contrary to what the title might seem to indicate, this book is about ever so much more than royalty and monarchs in the pursuit of glory. There's that too of course, but - as the titles to the four parts indicate - it's about life in all its aspects between 1648 and 1815:
- Part one: Life and death
- Part two: Power
- Part three: Religion and culture
- Part four: War and peace

In all, the book offers 677 pages (not counting the preface, suggested reading-list or index) densely packed with an amazing overview of virtually every major aspect of life in those days. This is no easy reading, but the rewards for making the effort to read this book with the attention and concentration it fully deserves are definitely worthwhile. What is also very refreshing is the fact that at times Blanning is not afraid to a) indicate that for some topics he can only give a short overview and b) freely admit that in some topics he's not a specialist.

Perhaps the best praise I can offer is that this book gave me an appetite to rush out to the bookstore and stock up on more to read about this fascinating period.

I now know a lot more things, but not necessarily in the logical order
This was a really well written and entertaining book. However, the author presupposes a lot of prior knowledge which I sadly lacked, making some of the material a bit challenging - probably not the best choice of read for the inexperienced but I have learned a great deal from reading it. There is a good chance that I'll do so again.

I was a bit disappointed by the balance of the content. I felt there is a disproportionate ammount of text devoted to the social history of the period and too little on the meaty political and military events, e.g the wars of the French revolution. I also thought that given that the book does not flow in strict chronological order then it would have really benefited from the inclusion of a simple summary chapter or timeline - something I think newbies to this period of European history would find very useful. That said, I still highly recommend it to anyone.

Ancien Regime
This is an excellent summary of 150 years of history from which one may then proceed to suspend more focussed histories. Tim Blanning has elected to go all Fernand Braudel on us and although the book is about the pursuit of glory he insists on taking us through the supports upon which this aristocratic tradition lies or lay before getting to the icing. The base of all wealth - the peasant is therefore given his proper place in the first section of the book. There then follows a review of power in these societies and of the role of religion. I found the latter particularly effective. Finally, for those of you who enjoy court armour and periwigs we get to an excellent summary of what is in practice the rise and fall of France. Here by using a macro view one can see many trends that are less easy to grasp when dealing with an individual Louis.

One comes away aware of how easily it could have been different. If Vienna had fallen to the Turks, if the French had stayed out of the American War, and if Prussia had lost Silesia. The Ancien Regime can in less skilled hands seem a sterile period before the excesses of nationalism; here we see it differently.