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History of the Revolutions in Europe

Christoph Wilhelm von Koch

The View of the Revolutions of Europe by M. Koch, has been long known and highly esteemed on the Continent as a work of incontestable merit, and entitled to hold the first rank among productions of its kind. It occupied the labours and researches of thirty years of the author's life; and had the benefit of receiving, at different intervals, several additions and improvements from his own hand. As a concise, luminous, and accurate summary of general history, it stands unrivalled. The principal events and vicissitudes of more than fourteen hundred years are here condensed within an incredibly small space; bringing, as it were, under one view, the successive changes and destinies of Europe, from the fall of the Roman Empire, in the fifth century, to the restoration of the Bourbons in France. The countries which the different nations from time to time have occupied their laws and institutions-their progress from barbarism to refinement — the revival of arts and sciences — the origin of inventions and discoveries — and the wonderful revolutions, both moral and political, to which they gave birth,— are here detailed at once with brevity and perspicuity. The author has restricted himself as it were to the pure elements or essence of useful knowledge, discarding from his narrative everything that did not minister to solid instruction. His book has been compared to a sort of chart or genealogical tree of history, where only the grand and prominent events have been recorded, stript of all their secondary and subordinate circumstances, which often distract the attention without adding in the least to the interest or elucidation of the subject. His researches have thrown a new light on some of the difficulties and obscurities of the Middle Ages, particularly with regard to Chronology and Geography. His veracity and precision are unimpeachable; and, though his style has been thought inelegant, his candour, judgment, and erudition have never been called in question. - Summary by Andrew Crichton