Excerpt from The Historical Development of Modern Europe, Vol. 2: From the Congress of Vienna to the Present Time; 1850-1897
N this, the second and concluding volume on the history of modern Europe, I have resumed the narrative at the point where it was dropped at the close of the previous volume, and carried it forward to the year 1897. Employing throughout the plan and method originally adopted, I have dealt with only those countries that have been influential in shaping the history Of continental Europe during the last seventy-five years, and have treated only those phases of their history that concern the historical development of Europe in the larger sense, rather than the historical development of each particular state or country. On the ground that no event can be understood in isolation, and that history is something more than a series of events chronologically considered, I have endeavoured to give logical form to my treatment of the subject, carrying each movement forward to its conclusion before turning to the others; and that due proportions might be preserved, have introduced nothing that did not seem to me absolutely meces sary to an understanding of the subject, giving no more atten tion to any incident, however picturesque or dramatic, than its importance for my purpose warranted.
In my treatment of the various movements I have given little space to descriptions of military campaigns, not because I object to drum-and-trumpet history, but because I believe that the details of battles and the movements of troops belong, except in their consequences, to the student of military strategy.
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