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Monarchy is one of the oldest truly global social structures. On the eve of the imperial age, most of the world was governed by monarchs. But as the European empires expanded, this order was radically transformed. During the long nineteenth century, most non-European monarchies were conquered by imperial powers. Often, European imperial powers abolished them, imprisoning, killing, or exiling local rulers; in other cases, the imperial powers incorporated the conquered monarchies into new imperial orders of indirect rule. Yet, there were some monarchies that survived Europe's imperial expansion. In fact, every country that retained its independence in the era of high imperialism was ruled by a monarch: Ethiopia, China, Japan, the Ottoman empire, Persia (Iran), and Siam (Thailand). To some extent, these monarchs lived in the same social worlds as their European counterparts, forming a global, status-based community. This article offers some observations on the relationship between the world's monarchs in the age of empire by focusing on encounters between European monarchs and those of the few non-European countries that retained their independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of global history has fundamentally reshaped historical scholarship over recent years. Questions about class structures, however, have rarely been specifically addressed by global historians. Scholars of social history, meanwhile, have traditionally studied social stratification within national frameworks. The introduction to this special issue addresses these shortcomings, exploring global social history as a new field of historical inquiry. Interweaving global and social history, it demonstrates that we cannot understand the emergence and transformation of social groups across the modern world - groups such as the aristocracy, the economic bourgeoisie, the educated middle classes, the peasantry, or nomadic groups - without considering how they were influenced by global entanglements. Moreover, it points out that we have to examine globalization as a social process that was shaped by particular social groups. The special issue will connect the study of global connectivity with that of the emergence and evolution of social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE AGE OF INTERCONNECTION A global history of the second half of the twentieth century JONATHAN SPERBER 688pp. Oxford University Press. 30.99 [pounds sterling] (US $39.95). In the years after [...]

TIME OF THE MAGICIANS The invention of modern thought, 1919-29 WOLFRAM EILENBERGER Translated by Shaun Whiteside 432pp. Allen Lane. 25 [pounds sterling] (US $30). In spring 1929, a group of [...]

THE SPECTRE OF WAR International communism and the origins of World War II JONATHAN HASLAM 504pp. Princeton University Press. 28 [pounds sterling] (US $35). When, in The Origins of the [...]

ON JULY 25, 1940, JUST AFTER THE FALL OF FRANCE and at the outset of the Battle of Britain, retired German diplomat Max von Oppenheim sent Berlin's Foreign Office a [...]

ON JULY 25, 1940, JUST AFTER THE FALL OF FRANCE and at the outset of the Battle of Britain, retired German diplomat Max von Oppenheim sent Berlin's Foreign Office a [...]