Between the restoration of Charles II and the battle of Waterloo, England gradually emerged as the core nation of the most formidable superpower the world had yet seen. Wilfrid Prest investigates this remarkable transformation from domestic instability and external weakness to global, economic, and military predominance. Geographically, the main focus is on England and Wales, but Prest also analyses the broader British context, discussing the role played by Ireland and Scotland, as well as the interrelations between England, Europe, and the wider world. He examines the lives of ordinary...

This is a study of China from the 1800s to the present day. It focuses on China's problems of development - the decay and collapse of the Chinese Empire, its failure to recover in the first half of the twentieth century, and its rapid emergence in world affairs since the Communist Party Revolution of 1949. This new edition examines economic growth, updates Chinese foreign policy, provides a revised account of the Tiananmen Incident, and brings the chronology completely up to date.

This is a study of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--a period of economic and cultural upheaval, of dramatic changes in politics, society, and religion, and of constant warring among the emergent states. Based on extensive research, this book covers such diverse themes as the Reformation, witchcraft, diplomacy, population structure, the growth of capitalism, wars of religion, and wars of expansion. Bonney also examines the Scandinavian countries and Russia, areas frequently neglected by historians.

A new edition of this widely used text covers the last two centuries of Indian history, concluding with an epilogue written from the perspective of the 1990s. It thematically and analytically discusses the emergence of India as one of the world's largest democracies and one of the most stable of the states to emerge from the experience of colonialism. The foundations of this rare phenomenon in either Asia or Africa are seen in India's society, the ideas and beliefs of her people, and the institutions of government and politics which have developed on the subcontinent, in a process of...

Political, social, and economic factors are integrated in this book, the two themes of which are the political and constitutional effects of rapid inflation and the difficulties caused by the universal desire to achieve and enforce religion in a theologically divided country.