Barnes, David S. The Great Stink of Paris and the Nineteenth-Century Struggle Against Filth and Germs. 2006. An outstanding introduction to sanitary developments and attitudes toward public health.

Baycroft, Timothy, and Mark Hewitson, eds. What Is a Nation? Europe 1789–1914. 2009. A sweeping study of nationalism in all its forms and all the processes that affected its evolution.

Berend, Ivan T. History Derailed: Central and Eastern Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century. 2003. Focuses on industrialization and its consequences.

Berger, Stefan, ed. A Companion to Nineteenth-Century Europe, 1789–1914. 2006. A useful study with an up-to-date bibliography.

Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage. 2005. A lively inquiry into the historical background to current practice.

Fuchs, Rachel. Gender and Poverty in Nineteenth-Century Europe. 2005. A history of the transformation of poor women’s daily lives in the nineteenth century, dealing with sexuality, death, work, and family.

Gildea, Robert. Barricades and Borders: Europe, 1800–1914, 2d ed. 1996. A recommended general study.

Koven, Seth. Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London. 2006. A provocative, in-depth account of middle-class encounters with the London working class in the late nineteenth century.

Malia, Martin, and Terrence Emmons. History’s Locomotives: Revolutions and the Making of the Modern World. 2006. An ambitious comparative work of high quality.

Mann, Thomas. Buddenbrooks. 1901. A wonderful historical novel that traces the rise and fall of a prosperous German family over three generations.

Otis, Laura. Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology. 2009. A fascinating selection of writings from a time when humanities and science were not considered separate disciplines.

Sperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848–1851, 2d ed. 2005. An overview of the background to the 1848 revolutions, their events, and their legacy to future generations.

Tombs, Robert. France, 1814–1914. 1996. An impressive survey with a useful bibliography.

Winks, Robin W., and Joan Neuberger. Europe and the Making of Modernity: 1815–1914. 2005. A grand narrative of the forces that shaped modern Europe from the Congress of Vienna to the Great War.