In 1859, Charles Baudelaire is writing the poetry and criticism of the new urban cultural and social world which would make him described by a number of historians as the first modern. Indeed, it is he who coined the term ‘modernity’. In the east, Ivan Turgenev with On the Eve begins reflections about Russia and modernity which would result in his next novel, set in 1859, Fathers and Sons. The latter still resonates today. In Switzerland, Jacob Burckhardt is inventing the Renaissance as a means of understanding what is happening in his own time. Indeed, we never talked about a Renaissance until Burckhardt published his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy in 1860, something he wrote in order to better understand his own times. In the West, several important and central works of European culture are being written in England by both British writers and exiles. Marx is researching Das Capital and writing A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Mazzini is writing his major work on modern nationalism, The Duties of Man, just as Italy is beginning its decade of unification and the European map is beginning a period of extraordinary change. John Stuart Mill published his On Liberty in early 1859, still the work that is the modern ground of democratic ideas dealing with the relationship between liberty and authority. And in November 1859 one of the dozen or so most influential works of all of European history and science, one that shattered many pre-modern concepts, The Origin of Species, was published by Charles Darwin. The thinkers who were prominent at the time were, in a full sense, public intellectuals. Their works were read, debated, applauded, feared, defended and scorned in the public forums, what philosophers sometimes called the marketplace. It was in 1859 that modernity, the world as we now know it, gets confronted and encountered. As a result concepts and ideas we still use, then new, get thought about and become part of the public discourse. From this point on, the dialogue is forever transformed.

After finishing his religious education and returning to his hometown of Muh�jir�n Haj Sayyah realises that his family has plans for him to marry his cousin. Partly wanderlust, and partly to escape this, he sets off for what would be an eighteen year trip through Europe, America and the Orient. Haj Sayyah's diaries are unique. He travels through practically every country in Europe, where he gives detailed reports. Later, in separate trips he also visits America and the Far East. He was astonished to see how much the European countries had progressed and concluded that education, to which European nations paid so much attention, was the basis for their advancement. In spite of his religious training, Sayy�h had a positive attitude towards modern European customs. He mingled with people from all social classes and developed a fair understanding of their ideas; he saw that they were free to openly criticise their governments and religious authorities. He visited museums, schools, libraries, churches, factories, parks, zoological and botanical gardens, even prisons, and met some of the famous personalities of the time such as King George of Greece, Czar Alexander II of Russia, and King Leopold I.

The culmination of decades of nationalist aspiration and cynical Realpolitik, the Second War of Italian Unification saw Italy transformed from a patchwork of minor states dominated by the Habsburg Austrians into a unified kingdom under the Piedmontese House of Savoy. Unlike many existing accounts, which approach the events of 1859–61 from a predominantly French perspective, this study draws upon a huge breadth of sources to examine the conflict as a critical event in Italian history. A concise explanation of the origins of the war is followed by a wide-ranging survey of the forces deployed and the nature and course of the fighting – on land and at sea – and the consequences for those involved are investigated. This is a groundbreaking study of a conflict that was of critical significance not only for Italian history but also for the development of 19th-century warfare.

Louis Napoleon, the future Emperor Napoleon III, was fourteen years older than his first cousin Prince Napoleon. Notwithstanding this difference in age, an intimacy was established between them from an early date, and although at time a few clouds drifted over the atmosphere, nothing was ever to break the close connection binding them together. Their friendship, formed in a land of exile in which both passed their childhood and a portion of their youth, was proof against every trial, and endured up to the death of the Emperor.They were, however, very different in character, and in many points quite contrary to each other. In order to unfold the nature of this friendship, this work leaves aside official letters and keeps to those which reveal an intimate character. The reading of these letters, written with no eye to future publication, will assist the unprejudiced historian, more than anything else, to come to a true understanding of their real natures.

In July 1858, Count Cavour, prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, met Napoleon III to plot the provocation of war with Austria, the result of which would be the complete expulsion of Habsburg power from Italy and the creation of an Italian confederation. This work describes the means whereby diplomacy was utilized to precipitate the war and traces its continuing role during and after the hostilities.

This carefully crafted ebook: "Europe A Prophecy (Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Blake's illuminated books, produced from 1783-1795, are remarkable examples of complex syntheses: of form - poetry and painting; and of subject - the real with the mythical. Blake created his own mythological creations to populate his poems and paintings: concepts and ideas became personified into universal representations. He used these mythological characters to explain and act out his singular view of history. Blake divided the nature of man into four personified elements: "Los, the imagination and eventual source of redemption; Urizen, the reason and vengeful Jehovah of the Old Testament as opposed to the merciful Christ of the New; Luvah, the senses; and Tharmas, the emotions". Each of these characters has an emanation, or female "offshoot", who is commonly a negative character attempting to dominate her male counterpart. "William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

Osprey's Campaign title for the battle of Solferino (1859), which was the decisive action of the Franco-Austrian War. Fought near Lake Garda in northern Italy, it was the largest European battle since Leipzig in 1813 with over a quarter of a million combatants. In the presence of three crowned heads of state - Napoleon III of France, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria and Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia (later the King of all Italy) - the armies clashed in a bitterly fought contest that would leave more than 40,000 dead and give the battle a reputation for savagery that would inspire not only the formation of the Red Cross, but also the first Geneva Convention. As a crucial climax to the Second Italian War of Independence, this title covers the build-up to the battle, including actions at Montebello, Palestro and Magenta that led to the decisive moment of the campaign. Full-color battlescene artwork and detailed maps illustrate this comprehensive account of the commanders, armies, plans and aftermath of one of the bloodiest battles of the period.