Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914

As far as single-volume histories of 19th century Europe go, Gildea's _Barricades & Borders_ is probably the best available. The book provides solid and sufficiently detailed coverage of the Continent's majors political and social events, though the century's fantastic artistic and cultural history is comes up short thanks, in large part, to the inclusion of only a few b & w illustrations. Still, if you're looking for a comprehensive treatment of the age, you won't go wrong with this book.

I used this book for my class on Nineteenth Century Europe. We started in 1815 following the fall of Napoleon and ended on the verge of World War I. This is a very good book and it covers all the information on this very critical time period in European History. The Nineteenth Century came after the French Revolution and before the First World War and was much different from both the 18th and 20th centuries. Robert Gildea gives equal space to all countries including those which are often overlooked, including the Low Countries. The social, intellectual, and cultural history of Europe between 1800-1914 is presented in a very well written format. The information contained on Germany and France is very informative and easy to understand. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Modern European history.