Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Penguin History of Europe Ser. I'm sure it's incredibly difficult to write a book about European History covering a hundred and fifty years which is at all academically respectable; Mr Blanning has certainly done it. It met with very favourable reviews, was The Sunday Times history book of the year, and was reprinted in paperback by Penguin Books in 2008. Viking. 3 The Pursuit of Purpose 25. We were not designed to be alone. As God observed after placing Adam in the garden, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Gen. 2: 18). between different countries. Mr Blanning has written an excellent political, social and military history of the period which saw great change and challenge for rulers and their citizens. 2 The Pursuit of Happiness 8. 111 reviews. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Blanning did with this book. “History writing at its glorious best.”–The New York Times. Blanning is a text on Europeam history during the so called "Glorious Revolution," which saw the rise of various political thoughts and theories, such as liberalism and republicanism, and the overall improvement of infrastructure, healthcare and human rights, albeit very slowly. “Anything the Austrians could do, the Prussians could do better.”, “By its durability this settlement proved that conservative liberty is an oxymoron, not a contradiction in terms.”. Consistently rated in the top 100 war games on board game geek over the last decade, Pursuit of Glory was a 2009 Golden Geek Best War Game Nominee. (Robert Walpole employed 50 people just to weed his gardens.) The material covered is broad, which has some effect in the flow of the book. In 1648 the main roads in Europe were mostly the ones that the Romans had built 1,500 years earlier and that had been neglected ever since. I understand why you might want to do that theoretically, and I agree with those theories, but reading it is water torture. Part One: Life and Death. The book needs a proofread: the chapters and sections often had little to do with the subject, and he frequently repeats points or entire quotations. What coaches there were were wretched and slow. The greatly improved roads, and thus greatly increased traffic, had an entirely unanticipated consequence: highwaymen. I found myself skimming over large portions of the last few chapters and only finished it out of sheer stubbornness. Another result was the freeing of manpower to work in the factories that were beginning to spring up in the English countryside. The title says it will discuss the 'five revolutions that made modern Europe' but I'll be damned if I actually know what the five revolutions are. "The Pursuit of Glory" is history writing at its glorious best. 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. It is hard to do justice to the breadth and depth of this book. Absolutely amazing - and part of a longer series I didn't know existed before, now I have to read all of those, thank you very much, I'll just stop pretending to be an adult for 7 months, and then go back to pretending, I guess. 708 pages. Delaine Fortson rated it it was amazing Aug 19, 2019. We mistakenly think it’s ours that we need, which leads to sin and misery. Covering what he sees as the five revolutions of the period (French, American, industrial, scientific and romantic), he weaves them all together into a fascinating whole. Most importantly, the book needs some form of basic citations at least; despite its being a popular history, Blanning frequently cites this scholar or that without naming where to find them. But enclosure, manuring, crop rotation, new crops like turnips and clover, and improved breeding brought forth a large increase in food production. Renny, the daughter of the High General, is young and brave, but also a brat in need of strict guidance. There are no featured audience reviews for All Work All Play: The Pursuit Of Esports Glory at this time. The Pursuit of Glory Europe 1648-1815By Tim BlanningIllustrated. So the period between these two dates is the very hinge of European history. This is a thorough, engaging and informative history: it takes on a lot (more than 150 years of history in a whole slew of countries, in 677 pages), and does an excellent job with it, offering interesting detail, analysis and quotations by contemporary observers. The bulk of the book is not about wars and kings, which I appreciated: there’s a lot about communication, agriculture, religion, culture etc. Wendy Krohn rated it liked it Aug 14, 2019. What is the name of the series of which this book is part? That chapter on roads is the first one; you'll read virtually nothing about the 'high' realms of culture and politics until the final chapters. Author Jeffrey Johnson begins The Pursuit of Glory with this observation: 'You and I are looking for something. In France travel times were cut in half and the comfort of riding in coaches much improved by the better roads. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia brought the Thirty Years' War to an end. The slow pace of my reading is based on that fact that it is a dense book and requires you to take time to absorb the information. There is a prodigious amount of information in this substantial volume. [Blanning] brings knowledge, expertise, sound judgment and a colorful narrative style.”–The Economist. See 1 question about The Pursuit of Glory…, this almost excessively glowing NYT review, THE PURSUIT OF GLORY: EUROPE - 1648 - 1815, 36 of the Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021. What is it? The prose style is witty and lucid, with the occasional humorous aside, but there are a few ticks that a better editor would have fixed, most glaringly the author’s constant use of the phrase “and so on”. Blanning accomplishes his task not by taking a strictly chronological approach but by dealing with various aspects of a rapidly changing Europe one by one. The narrative is also full of interesting details and anecdotes (such as the severe persecution of gays in eighteenth century Dutch Republic or Frederick the Great’s views on Christianity). 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. : The Pursuit of Glory : Europe, 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning (2007, Hardcover) at the best online prices at eBay! First of all, please understand this book is not for the casual reader. The specific requirements or preferences of your reviewing publisher, classroom teacher, institution or organization should be applied. Although those of us that mostly follow road racing do not know much about Wiggins, he has been a very successful as a track rider since 2000. Between the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the Battle of Waterloo, Europe underwent an extraordinary … This is a serious book with insightful analysis. One important reason was that Britain had an internal common market, but France was still riddled with internal tariffs and local taxes, causing no end of economic discontinuities. Adolph Antonacci rated it really liked it Jan 28, 2019. The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815, written by the British historian Timothy Blanning, was first published by Allen Lane in 2007.