The object of this book is to is to explain - rather than simply narrate - the remarkable or rather unique set of events that constitute modern history from the Industrial Revolution to the beginnings of the twenty-first century.

Gabriel Tortella is Professor of Economic History at the Universidad de Alcalá, Spain. He has also worked as Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and held visiting appointments at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Introduction 1. The Triumph of Europe 2. The First World Revolution 3. The Industrial Revolution 4. A Century of Progress and Order 5. Division of Labor and Class Struggle 6. La Belle Époque 7. The Second World Revolution 8. War and Democracy 9. Depression and Totalitarianism 10. A New Social Democratic Order 11. The Communist World 12. The Rise of the Third World 13. Renewed Capitalism 14. A Somber Twenty-First Century?