Rating: 
Summary: A snap shot of the World in 1800
Review: An excellent read! As a teacher of world history I find this book to be a excellent vehicle for introducing readers to a world with which we can still vaguely identify. The political institutions that Americans once cherished blossom in their infancy on the pages of Bernier's book. As the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and equality spread from the cultured palors of 18th century France to eventually influence the world, it was facinating to see them clash with the realities of war, poverty and slavery. From Europe to the Americas to Asia then finally Africa, Oliver Bernie takes detailed snap shots of culture and civilization in the world of 1800. What we are left with is a brilliant collage of humanity in the age of revolution at the end of the 18th Century.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting way of writing history
Review: I found "The World in 1800" to be a refreshingly new approach to history writing. Instead of focusing on one event or one geographical area, Bernier chooses to explore the entire world in and around the year 1800. Why 1800? Because, as Bernier explains it, that was when the world as WE know it was born. The birth of democracy and a giant step towards globalism were the most obvious things. As far as the structure of the book is concerned, the first part deals with events in Europe, especially the conquest of Europe by France. The second part deals primarily with the newly born United States, and the problems they dealt with, especially when it came to relations with both England and France who were at the time locked in an unwinnable war. Bernier also goes on to cover South America and Asia, though in much less detail. The only complaint I have is that Bernier includes a section on Africa.....which is only 20 pages long. Token? Perhaps. But given that so much of the world's economy was intertwined with the slave trade originating out of Africa, surely there would have been more to write about the "mysterious" continent. Overall, the book is highly readable, giving more than just bland dates, names, and locations. Bernier gives us a look at how individuals lived, and even gives the reader an idea of how they might have lived had they been born in the late 18th century. Food, fashion, society, architecture, it's all there.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting way of writing history
Review: I found "The World in 1800" to be a refreshingly new approach to history writing. Instead of focusing on one event or one geographical area, Bernier chooses to explore the entire world in and around the year 1800. Why 1800? Because, as Bernier explains it, that was when the world as WE know it was born. The birth of democracy and a giant step towards globalism were the most obvious things. As far as the structure of the book is concerned, the first part deals with events in Europe, especially the conquest of Europe by France. The second part deals primarily with the newly born United States, and the problems they dealt with, especially when it came to relations with both England and France who were at the time locked in an unwinnable war. Bernier also goes on to cover South America and Asia, though in much less detail. The only complaint I have is that Bernier includes a section on Africa.....which is only 20 pages long. Token? Perhaps. But given that so much of the world's economy was intertwined with the slave trade originating out of Africa, surely there would have been more to write about the "mysterious" continent. Overall, the book is highly readable, giving more than just bland dates, names, and locations. Bernier gives us a look at how individuals lived, and even gives the reader an idea of how they might have lived had they been born in the late 18th century. Food, fashion, society, architecture, it's all there.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting way of writing history
Review: I found "The World in 1800" to be a refreshingly new approach to history writing. Instead of focusing on one event or one geographical area, Bernier chooses to explore the entire world in and around the year 1800. Why 1800? Because, as Bernier explains it, that was when the world as WE know it was born. The birth of democracy and a giant step towards globalism were the most obvious things. As far as the structure of the book is concerned, the first part deals with events in Europe, especially the conquest of Europe by France. The second part deals primarily with the newly born United States, and the problems they dealt with, especially when it came to relations with both England and France who were at the time locked in an unwinnable war. Bernier also goes on to cover South America and Asia, though in much less detail. The only complaint I have is that Bernier includes a section on Africa.....which is only 20 pages long. Token? Perhaps. But given that so much of the world's economy was intertwined with the slave trade originating out of Africa, surely there would have been more to write about the "mysterious" continent. Overall, the book is highly readable, giving more than just bland dates, names, and locations. Bernier gives us a look at how individuals lived, and even gives the reader an idea of how they might have lived had they been born in the late 18th century. Food, fashion, society, architecture, it's all there.
Rating:
Summary: A fairly satisfying view of the world 200 years ago ...
Review: I found this book to be at times heavy, however at the end of each chapter gained a feeling of satisfaction that I understood our forebears in different parts of the world a liitle bit better. Starting with Europe and the UK, moving to the USA and then off to the less "explored" parts of the world was probably a fairly sound chronological approach however as a criticism I found the depth of treatment seemed to reduce the further we got from away from UK, Europe and the formative America, culminating in what I found very superficial treatments of India and Africa, with more emphasis on the habits of their european invaders than on the cultures of the countries themselves.However the above aside, it's well worth a read if you want to understand this period a little better than you do now.
Rating:
Summary: A fairly satisfying view of the world 200 years ago ...
Review: I found this book to be at times heavy, however at the end of each chapter gained a feeling of satisfaction that I understood our forebears in different parts of the world a liitle bit better. Starting with Europe and the UK, moving to the USA and then off to the less "explored" parts of the world was probably a fairly sound chronological approach however as a criticism I found the depth of treatment seemed to reduce the further we got from away from UK, Europe and the formative America, culminating in what I found very superficial treatments of India and Africa, with more emphasis on the habits of their european invaders than on the cultures of the countries themselves. However the above aside, it's well worth a read if you want to understand this period a little better than you do now.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I expected
Review: I suppose I was expecting more of a Paul Johnson-type overview of the 'world in 1800'! What I did get out of Bernier's book was a sense that, although there are the obvious technological and social differences between our times and the 1800's, much in the way of the essentializing 'human nature' repeats itself. I also learned a few trivial odds-and-ends type factoids which were enjoyable. Overall I thought Bernier painted an interesting portrait of the age
Rating:
Summary: Really quite a good book
Review: I was surprised to find this book quite rewarding reading. The author has accounts of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, the USA, Mexico, Peru, China, Japan , India, Turkey, and Africa in the years around 1800, and I found much of the material of high interest, and incitive of further reading. I noted with some surprise that the bibliography lists a book by Bertita Harding: Amazon Throne, which I read over 55 years ago and found really enjoyable and memorable. I really never thought Bertita Harding was a serious historian, since her books are so readable even for a teenager.
Rating:
Summary: Really quite a good book
Review: I was surprised to find this book quite rewarding reading. The author has accounts of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, the USA, Mexico, Peru, China, Japan , India, Turkey, and Africa in the years around 1800, and I found much of the material of high interest, and incitive of further reading. I noted with some surprise that the bibliography lists a book by Bertita Harding: Amazon Throne, which I read over 55 years ago and found really enjoyable and memorable. I really never thought Bertita Harding was a serious historian, since her books are so readable even for a teenager.
Rating:
Summary: An ideal history for the non-specialist general reader.
Review: In 1800, most people were living in the same manner as their ancestors had for countless generations. This was a time of open-air market stalls, overcrowded cities, a leisured nobility, with the majority of men and women living in subsistence rural villages. In The World In 1800, author and historian Olivier Bernier provides the contemporary reader with a comprehensive, vividly portrayed, compelling description of those times that were on the very brink of radical changes that would establish the modern world. The forces of European warfare, industrial revolution, global mercantilism, and more, would revolutionize the politics, economics, and daily lives of people around the world. The World In 1800 is a gripping, informative, illuminating, at times fascinating history that will be appreciated by both the history student and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the historical development of our modern day, globalized cultures and commerce.
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