Maggie's Farm

I am most of the way through Tim Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815.

It's the most enjoyable history book I've read in years, packed with color, remarkable details, and insights into the recent route to the modern world. A page-turner, in fact.

I was not surprised how much I had forgotten about Frederick the Great.

As Publisher's Weekly says:

Blanning, professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge, has performed the miracle of balancing and blending traditional political and diplomatic accounts with the newer fields of social, economic and intellectual history. A prime example of this is the author's treatment of the impact of the new "public sphere." As people discoursed through coffeehouses, Masonic organizations or periodicals, "a new source of authority emerged to challenge the opinion-makers of the old regime: public opinion."