Historical Tripos, Part I Paper 17 European History 1715-1890

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europe changed more radically than in
any earlier period. That is revealed by the frequent use of the word "revolution" to
describe some of its major events - The French Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, the
romantic revolution and the industrial revolution. The roots of another great revolution -
the Russian Revolution of 1917 - stretch back deep into the nineteenth century. Other
changes such as the ‘disenchantment of the world’ by the Enlightenment, the
transformation of the role and position of women, the urbanisation of European society,
the rise and fall of Napoleon or the unification of Italy and Germany, were of comparable
scale and importance. Virtually all the movements which formed the modern world -
secularism, liberalism, Marxism, democracy, romanticism, conservatism, modernism,
anarchism, terrorism (to mention just a few) were creations of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. No proper understanding of the world in which we live can be
achieved without knowledge and understanding of these dramatic times. Always one of
the most successful and popular papers in the Tripos, Paper 17 has been restructured to
provide students with a course of lectures which:
• is coherent in conception
• is comprehensive but concise in coverage
• combines both chronological and conceptual approaches
• is closely related to the examination paper
• is integrated with College supervision
The following reading list covers the main topics of Paper 17 on which questions may be set
in the exam. It is not meant to be comprehensive, even in English-language material. On the
other hand, you are not expected to read every item on the list! Supervisors will often propose
their own emphases and alternative readings, and lecturers may hand out more specialized
reading lists at their lectures.
Works which will help you to get a sense of the period and may be read in preparation include:
T.C.W. Blanning (ed.), The Short Oxford History of Europe: The eighteenth century (2000)
and The nineteenth century (2000)
T.C.W. Blanning (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe (1997)
T.C.W. Blanning. The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 (London, 2007)
William Doyle, The Old European Order, 2 nd ed. (1992)
Jonathan Sperber, Revolutionary Europe 1780-1850 (London, 2000)
Norman Stone, Europe transformed 1878-1919, 2 nd ed. (Oxford, 1999)
Please tell your lecturers or your supervisor any suggestions you want to make.
Chris Clark, Convenor of Part I Paper 17
cmc11@cam.ac.uk
September 2010
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