Any good histories of Europe post-Renaissance?

[Flaxbee]

I realize this is a HUGE category; just wondering if there are any overviews that do the period justice. Up to perhaps the 1850s or so?

Suggestions much appreciated, thanks.

[Adsos Letter]

1. It's later than your suggested time-period

but Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 is an interesting read, and quite accessible; includes chapters on America, and our relationship to world events.

Added link: http://www.amazon.com/Proud-Tower-Portrait-Before-1890-1914/dp/0345405013

[pscot]

2. The Pursuit of Glory by Tim Blanning

This is a very good survey of the period from 1648 to 1815. It ranges from England to Russia and looks at politics, economics, and social trends as well as the seemingly endless bloody struggles for territory and personal agrandizement. It's a good jumping off place, and will likely suggest topics you want to take a closer look at. It's pretty well written. Blanning lets his sense of humor show occasionally. Amazon has it for about $15. For a novelistic approach you might be interested in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy. He mixes Newton, Leibniz, Louis the 14th, counterfeiting and piss collection into a ripping yarn 3000 pages long. I read it straight through. It put my arm in a sling, but it was worth it.

[SheilaT]

3. The Discovery of France

by Graham Robb.

Absolutely riveting. We tend to think of all of France as having been a unified country, at least since Napolean. In reality, it had isolated linguistic and ethnic pockets into at least the 20th century.

Oh, and their vaunted French Academy which preserves the purity of the language? Robb mentions it, almost in passing, but points out that when the Academy made its first official dictionary, it cut the vocabulary by more than half. They simply threw out all the words they considered dialect.

Anyway, I found it fascinating and would recommend it. You don't even need to be all that interested in France itself, I don't think.