19th Century Europe

Nineteenth-Century Europe offers a much-needed concise and
fresh look at European culture between the Great Revolution in
France and the First World War. It encompasses all major themes of
the period, from the rising nationalism of the early nineteenth
century to the pessimistic views of fin de siècle. It is a
lucid, fluent presentation that appeals to both students of history
and culture and the general audience interested in European
cultural history.
The book attempts to see the culture of the nineteenth century
in broad terms, integrating everyday ways of life into the story as
mental, material and social practices. It also highlights ways of
thinking, mentalities and emotions in order to construct a picture
of this period of another kind, that goes beyond a story of
"isms" or intellectual and artistic movements.
Although the nineteenth century has often been described as a
century of rising factory pipes and grey industrial cities, as a
cradle of modern culture, the era has many faces. This book pays
special attention to the experiences of contemporaries, from the
fear for steaming engines to the longing for the pre-industrial
past, from the idle calmness of bourgeois life to the awakening
consumerism of the department stores, from curious exoticism to
increasing xenophobia, from optimistic visions of future to the
expectations of an approaching end. The century that is only a few
generations away from us is strange and familiar at the same time
- a bygone world that has in many ways influenced our present
day world.

Hannu Salmi is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Turku.