An engaging range of period texts and theme books for AS and A Level history. In many ways the period 1789-1849 saw the birth of the modern world, as the people of Europe grappled with the impact of the new political and social ideas, rapid population growth and the acceleration of the industrialisation. The clash between the forces of change and of conservatism provoked crisis, war, revolution and reaction. Andrew Matthews provides a lively and intelligent account. In chapters that focus on the French Revolution, Napoleon, Restoration France, Metternich's Europe and the 1848 revolutions, he considers the key individuals, groups and political, social and economic pressures that produced so much revolution, repression and war.