‘A masterpiece’ – Niall Ferguson

This thematic history of the world from 1780 to the onset of the First World War reveals that the world was far more globalised at this time than is commonly thought. Exploring previously neglected sets of connections in world history, Bayly’s masterpiece sketches the ripple effects of world crises such as the European revolutions and the American Civil War, and shows how events in Asia, Africa and South America impacted on the world as a whole. The book also considers the great themes of the nineteenth-century world, including the rise of the modern state, industrialisation and liberalism, and challenges and complements the regional and national approaches which have traditionally dominated history teaching and writing.