Choice Review

If one charged two historians to produce a concise and lucid survey of general European history from the Treaty of Utrecht to the Treaty of Versailles, it would be hard to imagine a better book than this. Canadian scholars Roessler (Univ. of Alberta) and Miklos (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) have produced a text with a clear sense of what will engage students. Focusing on the development of nationalism and democracy, their study advances with almost dramatic intensity toward the cataclysm of 1914-18. The authors include a good deal of social and intellectual history without digressing into irrelevant detail; there is an unfailing balance between the study of overall trends and the consideration of pertinent particulars. The elegance with which this book is written means that college and university teachers can themselves read it with pleasure while assigning it without guilt. Roessler and Miklos conclude with some 40 pages of very well chosen documents, (including some marvelous journal entries by a Canadian infantryman from WW I). This text may be used by itself or can serve as a handbook to provide continuity to a course using additional documents. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General collections and undergraduates. S. Bailey Knox College