The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830

Let me contrast Paul Johnson with another popular historian, Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States). Both are good, entertaining writers, but Zinn is honest about his radical bias, while Johnson assumes a "god's-eye" view of history that presumes to report "what really happened" without the biases that mere mortals are prone to. Of course, the bias is there anyway. Zinn is radically democratic and suspicious of all elites, whereas Johnson writes of a world well managed by a few superb individuals; the rest of the people are an abstraction he calls the "demos." Johnson deserves credit for writing well and engagingly about a remarkable range of topics, from politics and war to art and popular culture. But he deserves show more censure especially for his apologetics for European imperialism. Throughout this thick book, every European or American military adventure in Asia, Africa, or the Americas is reported with modifiers like "had to," "like it or not," and "reluctantly." Thus we read that Britain went to war in China "for altruistic as well as commercial reasons," as if China were in need of a foreign power to peddle opium to its people and lob shells at its port cities. There is no doubt that most European officers really believed they were more "civilized" than the peoples they confronted, but it seems ridiculous, or worse, for a latter-day historian to agree with them in this sly way. I would recommend taking this book with a grain of salt, remembering that the slaves who manufactured table salt during this period had a history as well. show less

Paul Johnson is a British journalist, a believing Catholic--and a conservative. That will put some people off--although it's notable I saw more than one review from readers who said in spite of that they found this book incisive and readable. For me it wasn't something off-putting but something I sought out. Having grown up on Manhattan's Upper West Side from kindergarten to college I was exposed almost exclusively to a left-wing narrative of history. I wanted to hear from the other side, and yes you can detect a right-of-center sensibility here. But for that very reason I found invaluable a slant on history that was new to me. My first Johnson book was Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties. So this could be seen as show more a kind of prequel, although dealing with an even tighter time frame, just fifteen years from 1815 to 1830 Johnson feels you can find the birth of modern society.

I think a good case can be made for that, whatever your ideology, considering that as Johnson related, among other things, these were the years that saw the real impact of the industrial revolution and the transformation from horse power to steam power and rail. As for one reviewer that compares Johnson unfavorably to Zinn--I'd note that Johnson at least has extensive notes on his sources--which you won't find in A People's History of the United States--nor did I find Johnson an uncritical apologist for Imperialism--and I appreciated he treated the world as round, and gave me something other than a completely American-centric perspective. show less

This sprawling work (exactly 1000 pages of text) is a slow read, but well worth the effort. Johnson links early 19th century developments with 20th century themes, but without heavy emphasis on the connections: his first chapter is "The Special Relationship" developing between the United States and the United Kingdom, with Andrew Jackson first in focus. He ties political and military history together with scientific, technological, literary, artistic, and cultural trends high and low, almost but not completely world-wide. After Jackson and the rising United States, he shifts to Castlereagh, Wellington and Metternich in post-Napoleonic Europe, and circles the World to Bolivar in South America. Then Beethoven, Rossini and Berlioz, show more painters Turner Delacroix and phenoms who are obscure now, writers Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth--for his conservative politics more than his poetry. Chapters deal with engineers: the road builder McAdam, the bridge builder Telford and the railroad developer Stephenson, and scientists: Humphrey Davy, the pioneer of modern chemistry, and Michael Faraday of electromagnetism.

In tracing the beginnings of modern art and culture, Johnson addresses not only the artistic genius but also the commercial aspects. Separate chapters deal with the British transportees who established Australia and with that great outlier Russia: "totalitarian oppression . . . administered with characteristic Russian carelessness and inefficiency" (838). Johnson includes early comparisons between the United States and Russia: "both strange and extra-European . . . seemingly, portents of the future" (62). He occasionally suggests overtones of modern figures like Nixon and Margaret Thatcher in events of 1815-1830.

Women are somewhat absent in the first chapters, but Johnson adds chapters on their gradually improving status, their accomplishments in literature, their influence in politics, and the sexual mores of the early 19th century. Sometimes this becomes gossip involving numerous forgettable characters.

On China, Johnson emphasizes not the evils of European imperialism, but imperial Chinese haughtiness and stupidity in facing British and other foreign challenges. There are short sections on the Greek war for independence, Italy, Switzerland and Poland, but nothing comparable on Germany, possibly because from 1815 to 1830 it was so fragmented. Johnson writes of the "Zeitgeist" and of Beethoven, Hegel and Caspar David Friedrich--whose painting "Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog" adorns the paperback's cover--but includes nothing on Prussia, Bavaria or the German universities, despite their role in the Romantic movement and in chemistry and medicine.

The relatively short narratives, on Argentina or Australia, for example, are easy to digest, because they are not burdened with an excessive number of personalities. But the chapters on France and especially Great Britain are weighted down with huge casts of characters. A reader might feel it helpful to read other histories of those countries first--or writings of Austen, Byron, Shelly, Hugo, Stendhal, and Macaulay--before attempting Johnson. show less

Paul Johnson is a conservative historian, who frequently has a contrarian view to the rest of academia. For that reason, it's interesting to read his histories and compare the different views on different events. It forces you to think about how history is dynamic and requires active participation. This particular history is a big much. It's a VERY long discussion of world history at the beginning of the 19th century, which is when Johnson proposes was the beginning of the modern era. All aspects of the time are discussed, and no part of the world is left out. If you're into history, this is great. If you're more into popular histories, skip it.

This is a very dry, "clever" book which, in my humble opinion, does not carry its argument: namely, that the 15 years from 1815 to 1830 were the period in which "life as we know it" was created.

I read just over 400 pages before deciding that I was not enjoying this book, or learning anything of great significance. I, therefore, reluctantly decided that this would become one of a small group of books which I failed to read in their entirety.

This is an extraordinary chronicle of the fifteen years, 1815-1830, that laid the foundations of modern society. It is a history of people, ideas, politics, manners, morals, economics, art, science and technology, diplomacy, business and commerce, literature, and revolution.
From Wellington at Waterloo and Jackson at New Orleans to the surge of democratic power and reform, this tumultuous period saw the United States transform itself from an ex-colony into a formidable nation, Britain become the first industrial world power, Russia develop the fatal flaws that would engulf her in the twentieth century, and China and Japan set the stage for future development and catastrophe. Provocative, challenging, and listenable, this remarkable story show more is told through the lives and actions of its outstanding, curious, and ordinary people. show less

An excellent history of the beginning of the modern world. I found it enjoyably written, often vivid, and insightful; I learned a great deal from reading it.