The Great Democracies: A History of the English Speaking Peoples, Volume IV

The fourth and last volume in Churchill’s famous account spans 1815 to 1901. It closes when the British Empire is at its peak, with a staggering one-fifth of the human race presided over by the longest reigning monarch in British history: Queen Victoria. In America he assesses the position of the “Great Republic” from slavery and secession to its position as a world superpower. He charts the rise of Germany and the unification of Italy and examines the situation in the Balkans in 1878, all of which had a deep impact not only on the war he was soon to fight, but on the geography of the European continent today.