''The Cambridge Modern History'' is a comprehensive modern history of the

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, beginning with the 15th century

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...

, published by the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

in England and also in the United States. The first series, planned by

Lord Acton John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli, (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902), better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He is best remembered for the remark he w ...

and edited by him with Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, Sir Adolphus William Ward and G. W. Prothero, was launched in 1902 and totalled fourteen volumes, the last of them being an historical atlas which appeared in 1912. The period covered was from 1450 to 1910. Each volume includes an extensive bibliography. A second series, with entirely new editors and contributors, '' The New Cambridge Modern History'', appeared in fourteen volumes between 1957 and 1979, again concluding with an atlas. It covered the world from 1450 to 1945.

Planning and publishing

The original ''Cambridge Modern History'' was planned by

, who during 1899 and 1900 gave much of his time to coordinating the project, intended to be a monument of objective, detailed, and collaborative scholarship. Acton was Regius professor of modern history at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, and a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of All Souls,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He had previously established the ''

English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, and ...

'' in 1886 and had an exalted reputation.

The new work was published in fourteen volumes between 1902 and 1912, in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

by the

and in the United States by Macmillan & Co. of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Written mostly by English scholars, the first twelve volumes dealt with the history of the world from 1450 up to 1870. The final volume, numbered 12, was ''The Latest Age'' and appeared in 1910. There then followed two supplemental volumes. The history was later followed by similar multi-volume works for the earlier ages, namely the ''

Cambridge Ancient History ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' is a multi-volume work of ancient history from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The first series, consisting of 12 volumes, was planned in 1919 by Irish historian J. B. Bur ...

'' and the ''

Cambridge Medieval History ''The Cambridge Medieval History'' is a history of medieval Europe in eight volumes published by Cambridge University Press and Macmillan between 1911 and 1936. Publication was delayed by the First World War and changes in the editorial team. O ...

''.Leslie Bethell, ''The Cambridge history of Latin America: Latin America since 1930'' (vol. 6)
p. 11
/ref> As the first of such histories, it later came to be seen as establishing a tradition of collaborative scholarship.Roberto González Echevarría, Enrique Pupo-Walker, 'Introduction', in ''The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature'' vol. 2 (1996), p. xvii: "The Cambridge history of Latin American literature draws upon a long tradition of collaborative scholarship that began with the Cambridge modern history (1902- 1912)..." A second edition of the atlas (volume XIV) was published in 1924.William Robert Shepherd, ''Historical Atlas'' (1964), p. iv

Volumes published

I. The Renaissance (1902)

II. The Reformation: The end of the Middle Ages (1903)

III. The Wars of Religion (1904)

IV. The Thirty Years War (1906)

V. The Age of Louis XIV (1908)

VI. The Eighteenth Century (1909)

VII. The United States (1903)

Scanned full tex
here
(

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

)

VIII. The French Revolution (1904)

IX. Napoleon (1906)

X. The Restoration (1907)

XI. The Growth of Nationalities (1909)

XII. The Latest Age (1910)

XIII. Tables and General Index (1911)

This volume includes *A four-page addendum, written by Ernest Alfred Benians, to Chapter 9 of Volume 6: Naval Operations in the Period of the Seven Years' War *Genealogical Tables and Lists **1. Genealogical Tables of Ruling and Noble Houses (112 tables) **2. Lists of Spiritual Princes, Elected Sovereigns, Etc. (28 lists) **3. Lists of Parliaments, General Councils, Etc. (6 lists) *General Index to all volumes

XIV. Atlas (1912, 2nd ed. 1924)

This volume begins with an extensive introduction to the maps, written by Ernest Alfred Benians. It is divided into several sections: *I. Europe in the Fifteenth Century *II. The Age of Habsburg Power and of the Reformation *III. The Rise of France and Sweden *IV. The Formation of the Great Powers of the Eighteenth Century *V. The Age of the Revolution and of Napoleon *VI. Since 1815 Except for the first, each is in turn subsectioned for Europe and "Greater Europe", with the latter term referring mostly to the colonial empires. A separate index is provided for the introduction. There are 141 maps in this volume. Two-page maps are bound in such a way as to prevent information from being lost in the gutter between pages. The concluding index gives the latitude and longitude of the places named.

Notes

References

* G. N. Clark, 'The Origins of the Cambridge Modern History', in ''Cambridge Historical Journal'', VIII, 2 (1945), pp. 57–64

External links

''Cambridge Modern History''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cambridge Modern History, The History books about the late modern period Cambridge University Press books 1902 non-fiction books Series of history books