Highlights
Expanded and Updated Scholarship
The Second Edition includes new material on:
- recent studies on the family economy, village and neighborhood life, and the changing structure of work
- Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans
- the origins of nationalism in Britain and France in the early eighteenth century
- economic planning in the former U.S.S.R. and peasant resistance to collectivism
- corporatism and fascism
- new scientific advances in German chemistry, public sanitation, and Russian industrialization
- the influence of the Ottoman Empire on Europe
- the Battle of Kursk in World War II
- the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia
- the history of global migration and its current challenges to European states
- the transformative effects of and resistance to globalization
- the European Union
- the ramifications of September 11.
Emphasis on Social History
The text highlights connections between social and political history by exploring the efforts of social groups to gain access to economic and political power and by analyzing the effect of this power on everyday life. Major themes include the social bases of politics, the rise of the modern state, relations among the major social classes, and the intersections of culture and politics. With topics ranging from the social foundations of art to the influence of popular culture on mass politics, Professor Merriman demonstrates the importance of intellectual, social, and cultural history alongside the traditional political and diplomatic perspectives.
Engaging Narrative
Professor Merriman’s compelling narrative brings history to life through colorful anecdotes, biographical sketches, and telling quotations. By evoking the lives of both leaders and ordinary people in periods of rapid economic and political change, revolution, and war, Merriman presents the human face of history and connects the past with the history being made today.
Streamlined Throughout
By combining chapters and scaling back the narrative, particularly in the nineteenth century chapters, Merriman accommodates new scholarship while making the Second Edition 10 percent shorter than the First Edition.
NEW Glossary
This helpful resource, with over 300 entries, defines key terms for students.
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