In The Pursuit of Glory Tim Blanning brings to life one of the most extraordinary and dynamic periods in Europe's history: from the desolate, battered and introvert continent of the end of the Thirty Years War to the overwhelmingly dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon.

How did people really live their lives? How did they understand their world? What did they buy? What did they eat? How did they pray? What were their loyalties and their values?

From the lives of ordinary farmers and soldiers to great kings, princes and bishops and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon); from art, leisure pursuits and garden design to the strange sport of fox-tossing, Blanning explores this era of immense change, and cultural, political and technological ferment. This was a world in which the elite were obsessed with the pursuit of glory: their own glory, that of their families and that of their countries. It was a time of immense expenditure - as much on clothes, banquets and palaces as on fortresses and artillery - which shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.