The French Revolution and the blood-curdling violence it engendered terrified the ruling and propertied classes of Europe. Unable to grasp how such horrors could have come about, many concluded that it was the result of a devilish conspiracy hatched by Freemasons inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment with the aim of overthrowing the entire social order, along with the legal and religious principles it stood on. Others traced it back to the Reformation...

This is a major biography of Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859), perhaps the most important European politician of the first half of the nineteenth century. Metternich held the highest civilian posts in the Austrian Empire without interruption from 1809 to 1848, helped determine the shape of post-Napoleonic Europe, and established the system of international congresses (the Metternich system) that dominated international relations up to 1918 and set...

Estamos en marzo de 1897, en París, espiando desde las primeras páginas de esta magnífica novela a un hombre de sesenta y siete años que escribe sentado a una mesa, en una habitación abarrotada de muebles: he aquí al capitán Simonini, un piamontés afincado en la capital francesa, que desde muy joven se dedica al noble arte de crear documentos falsos. Hombre de pocas palabras, misógino y glotón impenitente, el capitán se inspira en los folletines...

Meet George, the third Lord of Devonshire and the unluckiest boy in London. Why is George so unlucky? First, he's an orphan. Second, unless he sells everything, he's about to lose his house. So when his family's last heirloom, a priceless map to the Star of Victory (a unique gem said to bring its owner success in any battle) is stolen by a nefarious group of criminals, George knows that there is no one less lucky--or more alone--than he is. That...

"The Age of Atlantic Revolution was a defining moment in western history. Our understanding of rights, of what makes the individual an individual, of how to define a citizen versus a subject, of what states should or should not do, of how labor, politics, and trade would be organized, of the relationship between the church and the state, and of our attachment to the nation all derive from this period (c. 1750-1850). Historian Patrick Griffin shows...

In time for the bicentennial in 2015, a veteran historian brings the campaign and battle, its armies and their commanders, to fresh and vivid life in his brilliant new military history of one of the key battles in world history. Wellington remarked that Waterloo was "a damned nice thing," meaning uncertain or finely balanced. He was right. For his part, Napoleon reckoned "the English are bad troops and this affair is nothing more that eating breakfast."...