The Mighty Continent (a Candid History Of Modern Europe)

By (author) McDougall Walter A.
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By (author) McDougall Walter A.
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"Conservational and erudite."—Wall Street Journal

A renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning historian recounts the dramatic tale of modern Europe’s ascent.

In The Mighty Continent: A Candid History of Modern Europe, Walter McDougall, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, provides readers with a sweeping historical narrative that takes in the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural developments in the major European nations from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century.

Along the way, McDougall provides new insights on and interpretations of the Renaissance, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the Age of Exploration, the Scientific, French, and Industrial Revolutions, the sources of modernism, the origins of World War I, the rise of totalitarianism, the advance of the European Union, the collapse of communism, and much else.

Comprehensive yet compact, objective yet unabashed, attuned to European failings yet refreshingly free from cloying moralism, The Mighty Continent is history as it used to be: exciting, uplifting, ironic, not infrequently tragic—and, above all, fair to the figures who made modern Europe so world-shakingly powerful and inescapably influential.


Table of contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Classical Origins of European Civilization

Chapter 2: The Biblical Origins of European Civilization

Chapter 3: Faith Based on Reason: The Medieval Millennium

Chapter 4: Renaissance! Humanism and the Classical Revival

Chapter 5: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”: The Protestant Reformation

Chapter 6: “Set All Aflame!” The Catholic Reformation

Chapter 7: Spices, Specie, and Souls: Europe Goes Global

Chapter 8: Two Cardinals and a Sun King: Absolutism in France

Chapter 9: Parliaments Triumphant; Absolutism Thwarted in England

Chapter 10: To Probe the Mind of God: The Scientific Revolution

Chapter 11: Soldiers, Serfs, Icons, and Axes: The Rise of Prussia and Russia

Chapter 12: Reason Based on Faith: The Competing Enlightenments

Chapter 13: Competition for Empire: Britannia Rules the Waves

Chapter 14: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Betrayed: The French Revolution

Chapter 15: A World Restored: The Birth of Conservatism and Liberalism

Chapter 16: Machines in the Garden: Four Industrial Revolutions

Chapter 17: 1848 and After: Romantic Revolutions and Realistic Reforms

Chapter 18: “Nothing to Lose but Your Chains”: The Rise of Socialism

Chapter 19: Fluttered Folk and Wild: Europe’s New Imperialism

Chapter 20: The Snake That Ate Its Tail: The Culture of Modernity

Chapter 21: “Human, All Too Human”: The Origins of a World War

Chapter 22: Storm of Steel: The Traumas of War and Peace

Chapter 23: Class War: Marxism-Leninism Captures Russia

Chapter 24: Race War: Fascism and Nazism Capture Italy and Germany

Chapter 25: Years the Locust Hath Eaten: The Great Depression

Chapter 26: Descent into Hell: World War II and Its Holocausts

Chapter 27: Echternach Dance: The Cold War and the Revival of Europe

Chapter 28: Be Not Proud, Be Not Ashamed: In Defense of the West

Acknowledgments

Index


Review quote:

“McDougall has written a history of Europe from the Renaissance to 1945 that is erudite, thought-provoking, and engaging, proving that sweeping surveys of the past can still be written in the grand old style. This book is a triumphant return to proper history.”—Andrew Roberts, Washington Free Beacon



Biographical note:
Walter A. McDougall is the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations and Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Am
More Information
Author By (author) McDougall Walter A.
Date Of Publication Mar 5, 2026
EAN 9781967613007
Contributors McDougall Walter A.
Publisher Creed & Culture Books
Languages English
Country of Publication United States
Width 152 mm
Height 229 mm
Thickness 59 mm
Product Forms Hardback
Availability in Stores Achrafieh, Hamra, ABC Verdun, Global
Weight 0.820000
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