This book presents an age of nationalism, imperialism, modernization, industrialism, and great cultural achievement, stretching from 1800, when Europe was awash in the wake of the French Revolution, the reign of terror, and the coming rise of Napoleon, to Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914.

Concise biographical entries provide basic information on the great talents of the era-Beethoven, the Romantic poets, Hegel-as well as leaders in the modernization and industrialization of Western culture. Included are figures who played major roles on the imperialist and nationalist stage, those-such as Darwin and Planck-who made significant contributions to science, and those who struggled for women's rights and Abolition in the United States.