History of the modern world by Hutton Webster
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My Modern European History, published in 1920 (revised edition, 1925), was intended as a textbook for the second year of a two-year historical course. It has also found use as the basis of a one-year course, where the emphasis is placed on recent times and contemporary problems. When so used as a general or universal history, it seems to require something by way of introduction, lest students be plunged abruptly into the seventeenth century, with which the book begins.
I have tried to provide such an introduction in four chapters, outlining the growth of civilization from the earliest times. The revised edition of the Modern European History, as enlarged by the addition of these preliminary chapters, constitutes the work now offered to teachers and pupils in the high schools.
The selection of collateral reading, always a difficult problem in the secondary school, is doubly difficult when so much ground must be covered in a single course. I venture, therefore, to call attention to my Readings in Ancient History and Readings in Medieval and Modern History.
They consist of extracts from the sources, chiefly of a biographical or narrative character. Their purpose is to provide immature students with a variety of extended, unified, and interesting extracts on matters which a textbook treats with necessary, though none the less deplorable, condensation. A third work — Historical Source Book — includes a number of documents ranging from Magna Carta to the Covenant of the League of Nations. These collections supply abundant material, not only for outside reading, but also for oral reports in class and for essays. References to the three volumes are inserted in footnotes.
Some contents of History of the modern world
CHAPTER I — The Beginnings of History
1. History and Prehistory
2. The Dawn of Civilization
3. Races and Languages
4. Lands and Peoples of the East
5. The Far East in Antiquity
6. The Near East in Antiquity
CHAPTER II — Ancient Times in Europe
7. Lands and Peoples of the West
8. The Greeks
9. Athens
10. The Graeco‑Oriental World
11. The Romans
12. The Greco‑Oriental Roman World
13. The Decline of the Roman Empire
14. Christianity and Its Influence
15. The German Invasions and Their Results
CHAPTER III — Medieval Times in Europe
16. The Early Middle Ages
17. Feudalism
18. The Church
19. Country Life
20. City Life
21. National States
22. The Culture of the Later Middle Ages
CHAPTER IV — The Transition to the Modern World
23. The Revival of Learning and Art
24. The Revival of Science and Invention
Major Sections in the Table of Contents about modern history
Colonial and American Development
- Economic Development of the Colonies (p. 249)
- Political Development of the Colonies
- Canada and Louisiana (p. 256)
- Rivalry of France and England in North America (to 1763, p. 259)
- The American Revolution, 1776–1783
- Formation of the United States
- Progress of Geographical Discovery
The Old Regime in Europe
- Reform (p. 276)
- Privileged Classes
- Unprivileged Classes
- The Church
- Liberal Ideas of Economists
- Liberal Ideas of Philosophers
- French Philosophers
- Enlightened Despots
The French Revolution (1789–1799)
- Preparation for the Revolution
- Eve of the Revolution
- The Estates-General, 1789
- Outbreak of the Revolution
- The National Assembly, 1789–1791
- The First French Republic, 1792
- The National Convention, 1792–1795
- The Directory, 1795–1799
- The Revolutionary Era
Napoleon Bonaparte (1799–1815)
- The Consulate, 1799–1804
- The First French Empire, 1804
- Napoleon at War with Europe, 1805–1807
- Napoleon’s Reorganization of Europe
- The Continental System
- Revolt of the Nations, 1808–1814
- Downfall of Napoleon, 1814–1815
- The Napoleonic Era
Hutton Webster:
The book History of the Modern World was authored by Hutton Webster (1875–1955), an American historian and educator. He specialized in European and world history and published several widely used textbooks in the early 20th century.
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