The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture

A Book of the Year for Spectator, Daily Telegraph, BBC Music Magazine, BBC History Magazine, and Kirkus Reviews

From the “master of historical narrative” (Financial Times), a dazzling, richly detailed, panoramic work—the first to document the genesis of a continent-wide European culture.

The nineteenth century in Europe was a time of unprecedented artistic achievement. It was also the first age of cultural globalization—an epoch when mass communications and high-speed rail travel brought Euro...