The Pursuit of Power

Europe: 1815-1914

De: Richard J. Evans

Narrado por: Napoleon Ryan

Richard J. Evans's gripping narrative ranges across a century of social and national conflicts, from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 to the unification of both Germany and Italy, from the Russo-Turkish wars to the Balkan upheavals that brought this era of relative peace and growing prosperity to an end. Among the great themes it discusses are the decline of religious belief and the rise of secular science and medicine, the journey of art, music, and literature from Romanticism to Modernism, the replacement of old-regime punishments by the modern prison, and the dramatic struggle of feminists for women's equality and emancipation. Uniting the era's broad-ranging transformations was the pursuit of power in all segments of life, from the banker striving for economic power to the serf seeking to escape the power of his landlord, from the engineer asserting society's power over the environment to the psychiatrist attempting to exert science's power over human nature itself.

The first single-volume history of the century, this comprehensive and sweeping account gives the listener a magnificently human picture of Europe in the age when it dominated the rest of the globe.

©2016 Richard J. Evans (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Terrific comprehensive history

Evans's history of 19th century Europe should be required reading for anyone interested in how we came to the situation facing us in the 21st. The beginning of the book,with its focus on geopolitics, is slow going but worth the effort. Evans seems to cover everything: A rich social history that spans the continent from the end of the Napoleonic wars to the onset of WW1. Highly recommended.

A great book

This is a very good and comprehensive history of the 19th century. It is very well written and also very well performed; I do Recommend it highly.

An Excellent History of Pre Great War Europe

Delivered by the steady dulcet tones of Napoleon Ryan, The Pusuit of Power goes in depth with the history of 19th Century Europe and it's inevitable march to WWI.

Good History, Rough narration

This is a very academic history. Evans is to be commended for a thorough analysis of this time period, and how it brings us into the cataclysms of the 20th century. The narrator has a good voice, but then spoils it with weird voices to emphasize quotations. The writer uses years to indicate where an individual belongs in the "history" of the time, but listening to years from and to, over and over, does end up spoiling the flow of the narrative.

Facts and Anecdotes

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This is full of facts. However the narrative is dry and jerky as the author goes from fact to fact without enough context or interpretation

What did you like best about this story?

The sweep of history it embraces. It filled in many gaps in my knowledge

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The endless dates of personages needed to be edited out. They work in a book, not in an audio book. The reader's German needs some work. It is not Bismaaach!

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Any additional comments?

I struggled to finish this book because I felt I was learning something. However it was not entertaining in any way. Comprehensive but dry.

Great History I Loved It Highly Recommend

What did you love best about The Pursuit of Power?

This book is so comprehensive and I think accurate, I can apply it to current events, the same human issues exist today, only desquised by modern conditions. The author's use of a single person to help you understand, say, the life of a serf, was perfect. As was taking a topic like health or the industrial revolution and separating it from the constant wars that were going on. Marvelous, overall.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Pursuit of Power?

The descriptions of individual persons, their misbehavior and their fumbling with leadership skills they lacked, and the understanding of the feelings of others -- perfectly described.

What about Napoleon Ryan’s performance did you like?

I actually got into it, and loved his performance. Others might disagree, but I liked his British accent, and his sometimes use of dialect to make a part of the story less boring and repetitive. This is a massive amount of material, 82 chapters, 50 hours I suspect, he had a mammoth job to do, and I think he did it well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did not listen in one sitting, it took 40 sittings .. it is 82 chapters. I listen in the car, this is a serious book, real learning about human nature, and government and "how we got to where we are' in history, as nations, and how these 100 years are still affecting European borders, conflicts and hatreds.

Any additional comments?

Anyone who likes history should love this -- different and in many ways better organized than most history books. Not quite at the level of Will Durant's work, but just as comprehensive and even more detailed. You live the book, not just read it.

less about power- more about history

the title is misleading insofar as this isn't a study of the pursuit of power as much as a fascinating delve into the Europe of 1750-1915. excellent, from that PoV.

Narration ruins the book

I don't want to be mean but the narration makes this completely unlistenable. It's just horrid. You'd be better off reading it.

Evans fails to get at the true driving forces.

I have been studying history my entire life. For the first 35 years I was on the wrong path sent there by professors who presented history as spin, which I believed for too long. This book, "The Pursuit of Power" is large enough and detailed enough that despite the political overlay I was able to get some value. It falls down when it gets to the culture of the elites, or I should say, it never really analyzes what is driving the true elite of Europe. This is disappointing because given the breadth of this survey, honing in on elite culture and politics would have been relatively easy. Notably absent in the survey were things like; the rise of Zionism, the rise of the Rothschild's, the rise of Theosophy, the rise of the Freemasons and other Jacobin style groups. Because of these oversights, which I think were deliberate, I have to mark it at only 3 stars.

POWERFUL History

I have read some of the reviews and please understand that this is not a novelization and 100 years covers a great deal of material as we have so many more preserved records and other data as opposed to the reign of Charlemagne just to cite one comparison but if you want to try to develop deep insights into the immediate events prior to the modern era this is an excellent source. It ends with WW1 which decisively annihilates the Ancien Règime. Getting an understanding of the situation 1815 through the 1840s just with respect to plague and famine makes this book more than worthwhile.
I actually purchased this title because Napoleon Ryan is the reader!
I really enjoy trying to get into the narrator's style and over a number of books I have become an NR fan. He is working with the material and trying to do it in a more artistic fashion than many other readers. Not that you must or should but this is recorded buy also a cooperative human venture involving us all on the writing (Thank You Richard J.Evans) and the production crew especially the narrator.
In the introduction Mr. Evans makes it clear that he has made personal decisions as how to organize and present the material and this is worth listening to and contemplating. Of course every historian must do this but his explication helps with the clarity. The same applies to the narrator as to how all this can be made lively for the many many hours (41.5) so, please, you too are part of this as well. To make it all work listeners must adjust too and, perhaps, not be overly stiff.
On a closing note I certainly will purchase the other works in this series.