Description

Revolution, war, political turmoil: this is the extraordinary story of how modern London – the world’s first truly global city – was made.

‘Jerry White is the historian of London, and this may be his crowning achievement … Brilliant’ DAVID KYNASTON, author of Austerity Britain

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars changed London beyond recognition. In this brilliant portrait of these pivotal years, acclaimed historian Jerry White reveals how conflict and political upheaval on the Continent transformed Britain’s capital forever.

For some Londoners, war brought wealth; for others, poverty and riots. Patriots clamoured for Boney’s defeat; radicals sought to emulate the reforms pioneered across the Channel. Crucially, the chaos and uncertainty engulfing mainland Europe at the turn of the century drove an exodus of bankers, aristocrats and merchants to London. The city’s docks grew to be the heart of global trade; imperial expansion revived London’s slave trade; and financiers like the Rothschilds provided the gold that crushed Napoleon at Waterloo. London became the world’s leading financial centre.

Ultimately, as White vividly shows, these dramatic years ushered in the ‘British Century’ – a hundred years of British capitalist innovation, naval supremacy and imperial power – and made London the remarkable global city we know today.

‘A compelling trip through the dirt, drama and danger of London at the turn of the nineteenth century’ MICHAEL TAYLOR, author of Impossible Monsters

‘This is White at his best. Elegantly written, thought-provoking, fascinating’ EMMA GRIFFIN, author Liberty’s Dawn

Publisher Review

Jerry White is truly the historian of London, and this may be his crowning achievement: a stunningly ambitious and brilliantly executed study of the great, indispensable city - in all its human drama and beguiling variousness - at this pivotal moment of world as well as British history -- David Kynaston, author of A Northern Wind This beautiful book is Jerry White at his best. An elegantly written and thought-provoking account of London during the Industrial Revolution, drawing fascinating interconnections across trade, money, empire, slavery, war and revolution to shed new light on the making of modernity and the creation of the great city we know today -- Emma Griffin, Professor of British History, QMUL A compelling trip through the dirt, drama, and danger of London at the turn of the nineteenth century: Jerry White shows us how the Revolution made London, and how London made the world -- Michael Taylor, author of Impossible Monsters