This book reinterprets the last five centuries of European history, a period characterised by war, revolt and contention, by the rise and struggles of states and empires, and by urbanization, enrichment and industrialization. His focus is on revolutions, their origins in ambition and discontent, and the variability of their outcomes over time and according to place, politics and culture. He seeks an understanding of revolutionary processes grounded in the contingencies of circumstance, and to show the pace of great revolutions in the long-term history of Europe and the world at large.