Introduction Warren Breckman and Peter E. Gordon; 1. German idealism: the thought of modernity Terry Pinkard; 2. European romanticism: ambivalent responses to the sense of a new epoch Nicholas Halmi; 3. History, tradition and skepticism: the patterns of nineteenth-century theology David Fergusson; 4. The young Hegelians: philosophy as critical praxis Warren Breckman; 5. Utilitarianism, God, and moral obligation from Locke to Sidgwick Philip Schofield; 6. Capital, class, and empire: nineteenth-century political economy and its imaginary Francesco Boldizzoni; 7. Positivism in European intellectual, political, and religious life Mary Pickering; 8. European liberalism in the nineteenth century Jerrold Seigel; 9. European socialism from the 1790s to the 1890s Gareth Stedman Jones; 10. Conservatism: the utility of history and the case against rationalist radicalism Jerry Muller; 11. The woman question: liberal and socialist critiques of the status of women Naomi Andrews; 12. Darwinism and social Darwinism Gregory Radick; 13. Historicism from Ranke to Nietzsche John Toews; 14. Philology, language, and the constitution of meaning and human communities Tuska Benes; 15. Decadence and the 'second modernity' Mary Gluck; 16. Nihilism, pessimism, and the conditions of modernity Christian Emden; 17. Civilisation, culture and race: anthropology in the nineteenth century Adam Kuper; 18. The varieties of nationalist thought Erica Benner; 19. Ideas of empire: civilization, race, and global hierarchy Jennifer Pitts; 20. Rethinking revolution: radicalism at the end of the long nineteenth century Claudia Verhoeven.

'This is simply an incredible resource: essay after essay, written by leading intellectual historians that provide concise, lucid and engaging introductions to the main currents of European thought over the past two centuries. Everyone from students to seasoned scholars will want copies of these books on their shelves.' David A. Bell, Lapidus Professor, Princeton University