The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848

Between 1789 and 1848 the world was transformed by both the French Revolution and also by the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This “Dual Revolution” created the modern world as we know it. Hobsbawm traces the transformation brought about in every sphere of European life by the Dual Revolution – in the conduct of war and diplomacy; in the new industrial areas and on the land; among peasantry, bougeoise, and aristocracy; in methods of government and of revolution; in science, philosophy and religion; in literature and the arts. But above all he sees this as the period when industrial capitalism established itself in Western Europe and when Europe established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for a century.