The individual volumes interlock to form a continuous narrative, but each volume also stands alone as a distinctive study of a major period of European history. Emphasis is placed on trends rather than isolated facts and on meaning and process in history. Where standard views are dated or inadequate, the authors do not hesitate to advance fresh interpretations. the result is history on a broad scale that measures up to the demands of current scholarship.

The Volumes in the Norton History of Modern Europe are striking in the quality of their illustrations and maps. New Sources have been drawn upon for engravings and halftones from contemporary documents and works of art; unusually clear maps have been prepared by the cartographer Harold K. Faye.