To all thoughtful people World War I has brought to intention the importance of a knowledge of 19th Century European history. For without such knowledge no one can understand, or begin to understand, the significance of the forces that have made it, the vastness of the issues involved, the nature of what is indisputably one of the gravest crises in the history of mankind. No citizen of a free country who takes his citizenship seriously, who considers himself responsible, to the full extent of his personal influence, for the character and conduct of his government, can, without the crudest self-stultification, admit that he knows nothing and cares nothing about the history of Europe.

Contents:

The Old Regime in Europe

The Old Regime in France

Beginnings of the Revolution

The Making of the Constitution

The Legislative Assembly

The Convention

The Directory

The Consulate

The Early Years of the Empire

The Empire at Its Height

The Decline and Fall of Napoleon

The Congresses

France Under the Restoration

Revolutions Beyond France

The Reign of Louis Philippe

Central Europe in Revolt

The Second French Republic and the Founding of the Second Empire

The Making of the Kingdom of Italy

The Unification of Germany

The Second Empire and the Franco-Prussian War

The German Empire

France Under the Third Republic

The Kingdom of Italy Since 1870

Austria-Hungary Since 1848

England From 1815 to 1868

England Since 1868

The British Empire

The Partition of Africa

Spain and Portugal

Holland and Belgium Since 1830

Switzerland

The Scandinavian States

The Disruption of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Balkan States

Russia to the War With Japan

The Far East

Russia Since the 1905 War With Japan

The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913

The European War

Making the Peace