I really enjoy the Victorian Era / late 19th century as a whole, and would really like to learn more about pretty much everything, from the industrialization and fastest economic growth ever, to the social changes and rise of the middle class, to empire building and the concert of Europe, to many country specific situations (mostly, the Great Powers of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, as well as Portugal and Brazil).
However, every bookstore I've ever been to has a substantial skip in the History section, from the French Revolution immediately to WW1 (if that, some go straight to WW2). As a result, I know exactly one reference on the period I'm referencing, which is Eric Hobsbawm's duo "The Age of Capital" and "The Age of Empires". I don't particularly like him as an author, though…
I gratefully accept any references you can provide!
by Mq_Tamandare
2 Comments
The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914
Dominion: The History of England from the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
The Crimean War: A History
The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture
The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871
Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism
The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
I found *The Victorian City* by Judith Flanders highly informative. She also wrote *The Invention of Murder* and a bunch more Victorian-era nonfiction. She’s a very conversational author.