The Pursuit of Glory

The Five Revolutions That Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815

By: Tim Blanning

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

The New York Times best-selling volume in the Penguin History of Europe series

Between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the Battle of Waterloo, Europe underwent an extraordinary transformation that saw five of the modern world's great revolutions - scientific, industrial, American, French, and romantic. In this much-admired addition to the monumental Penguin History of Europe series, Tim Blanning brilliantly investigates the forces that transformed Europe from a medieval society into a vigorous powerhouse of the modern world. Blanning renders this vast subject immediate and absorbing by making fresh connections between the most mundane details of life and the major cultural, political, and technological transformations that birthed the modern age.

©2007 Tim Blanning (P)2019 Tantor

Thorough, detailed and enjoyable

I liked this book and its chronological description and detailed knowledge of this interesting time in history

Comprehensive treatment of the period

This is the nonpareil history of this period (1648-1815). The breadth, depth, and scope of coverage makes it the standard work for this generation of historians. The volume is brilliantly written, comprehensively inclusive, and eminently readable.

The mass of information.

I liked this book for the wealth of information it gave about this time period. I did not really care for the narrator as he read in somewhat of a monotone. He was good for volume and pronunciation of words, but read a little too fast to keep up sometimes. Overall, Blanning does a good job with the material though sometimes his biases come through the text, which I know happens with all writers, but it was at a minimum. Again, for the amount of material to cover, this does an admirable job. I wish the narrator had been a bit more lively and not as fast a reader.

A Fine, (but Repetitive) Book; Excellent Narration

T.CW. Blanning’s “The Pursuit of Glory,” his history of Europe from 1648 to 1815, and a component of the excellent Penguin History of Europe series, is a fine book: Blanning is a talented writer, and he brings a degree of emotion, and even at times humor, to his comprehensive review of the period from the Peace of Westphalia, concluding the Thirty Years War, to the Congress of Vienna, which brought the Napoleonic Wars to a close. However, the structure of the book, organized around themes, rather than chronology, makes the repetition of facts inevitable. This is exacerbated by Blanning’s tic of repeating certain phrases, often multiple times within the same chapter (I cringed each time I read “…but here one example will have to suffice”). Further, while the text is not intended to be a military history, the absence of information about many key aspects of the numerous wars of this era is glaring. Finally, Blanning defines “Europe” quite narrowly, so the roles for of, for example, the Ottoman and Russian Empires, as well as the American Revolution, are given short shrift, to the extent that the book at times reads like a history of western and central Europe.

The narration, by Cameron Stewart, is uniformly excellent. You captures the spirit of the text, and in some ways of the time, very well.

“The Pursuit of Glory” is certainly worth the considerable time that must be invested in its reading, but be aware in making the journey that you will be crossing the same roads many times.

Fantastic history

Exceptionally well written; very clear and always engaging. The early chapters on communication and transportation were particularly informative and original. Narration is superb.