A History of the Modern World (8th Edition) [Hardcover]

R. R. Palmer (Author), Joel Colton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0679432531 | ISBN-13: 978-0679432531 | Edition: 8th

8th edition

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8th edition

About the Author

Robert Roswell Palmer, a former professor of history at Princeton University, was educated at the University of Chicago and Cornell University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1934. His books include Catholics and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France, Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution, and the two-volume Age of the Democratic Revolution, the first volume of which won the Bancroft Prize. A former president of the American Historical Association, he has received honorary degrees from universities around the world, and was awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize for History in 1990. He and his wife live in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Joel Colton taught in Duke University’s history department for forty-two years. He was educated at City College of New York and Columbia University, which awarded him his Ph.D. in 1950. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been a Phi Beta Kappa lecturer and the recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. His books include Léon Blum: Humanist in Politics, for which he received a Mayflower Award. He has cowritten, with R. R. Palmer, the previous eight editions of A History of the Modern World. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Lloyd Kramer is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His books include Threshold of a New World: Intellectuals and the Exile Experience in Paris, 1830–1848 and Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions, which won the Gilbert Chinard Prize and the Annibel Jenkins Biography Prize. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1280 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 8th edition (January 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679432531
• ISBN-13: 978-0679432531
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A huge book - in every way!, December 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of the Modern World (8th Edition) (Hardcover)

This classic is a must for everyone who appreciates well-written history books. Palmer and Colton's gargantuan "History of the Modern World" conveys a vast amount of knowledge in an interesting manner (although at times close to unbearably dense)and its ideas and perspectives are always relevant, new and enlightening. This is a great supplementary text for every European history course you may be taking or teaching. It is also a treasure chest of historic personalities, events and a panoply of culure through the ages. And a look at the enormous Bibliography will convince you that this book was indeed written by two first-rate scholars. Don't let the price scare you, it is a tremendous read, wonderfully presented, perfectly readable, and it's about as much fun as 800 pages of history can be!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, but too high-level for many students, August 3, 2001

By 

Charles Ryder (The North Hills School, Irving, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of the Modern World (8th Edition) (Hardcover)

The Palmer & Colton text is an excellent book. I (an AP European History teacher) found it to be extremely well-written, authoritative, and interesting. Many textbooks are written in such a manner as to put even a history teacher to sleep, or, if they are written in an interesting manner, suffer from shoddy scholarship. "A History of the Modern World" suffers from neither of these flaws. It does, however, have a few weakenesses. As mentioned in other reviews, it has fewer illustrations than most secondary texts, and none of the illustrations are in color, making maps somewhat difficult to read and greatly reducing the value of putting art in the book. Palmer & Colton also spend a bit less time on social history. Finally, though extremely well-written and interesting for the accomplished reader, it is quite heavy reading for even a high-level high school reader. Hence, while some students love "A History of the Modern World," many others dread having to read it. All that said, I believe for sheer volume and quality presentation of information, this is the best AP European Hisory textbook I have read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant point of view, December 21, 1999

By 

"benph" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of The Modern World (8th Edition) (Hardcover)

{The most valuable aspect of this book is the unique and insightful perspective of the authors. Their ability to see the large world picture and draw parallels see events from different angles makes this work a thought-provoking reference.} {For instance even the horrible Spanish colonization of the America's was placed in a different light when the authors explained that the Native Americans had also been unfree under their local chiefs, and that the Inquisition was mild compared some of the cruelties of the Aztecs and Incas. The European colonization of other continents was explained as being in a continuum with other European expansions including the Crusades. The new religious attitudes brought about by the Renaissance was compared to the new religious adaptations in Confucian, Islamic, and Hindu societies. Even the five page summary of the American Civil War was in many ways more informative than entire documentaries (because of its world perspective).} {This book is also valuable for the minor things it throws in that changes one's whole point of view. It for example pointed out that there really was no such concept as "Europe" in ancient times, and it described the Roman Empire as an "experiment of civilzing the West."} {For me, the book's biggest fault is that it's called "History of the Modern World" and really only deals with European history. However, the authors make note of this at the beginning and explain their rationale. There still is precious little mention of the Ottoman Empire and other nations whom Europeans were in direct contact with.} {Others have complained that this history contains more facts than anyone would care to know, but all the facts are somewhat relevant and are part of the whole picture. It is designed so that it does not need to be read cover to cover, since there are numerous cross references and a comprehensive index. It is definitely more on the political side than the human interest side, but it contains many important underlying facts that I haven't seen in other textbooks like land transfers during revolutions and population growth rates. It is certainly a fascinating book to peruse for anyone intersted in European or World History.}