`The Penguin History of Europe series ... is one of contemporary publishing`s great projects` New Statesman

The Pursuit of Glory brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in European history - from the battered, introvert continent after the Thirty Years War to the dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon. Tim Blanning depicts the lives of ordinary people and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon), and explores an era of almost unprecedented change, growth and cultural, political and technological ferment that shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

Tim Blanning is the author of a number of major works on eighteenth century Europe, including The Pursuit of Glory, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture and Joseph II. He was Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.