A great history of Europe from 1815 to 1914 by Sir Richard Evans, the author of the excellent trilogy about the Third Reich. It’s taken me a month to read this and summarizing it in any meaningful way for you is difficult, but...
The book is organized into sections based on concepts or historical themes including the end of the Napoleonic wars; the end of Serfdom; the Industrial and textile revolutions; the revolutions of 1830, 1848, etc.; the gradual advance of liberal democracy with the coming of modification of work hours, the reduction of work hazards and the expansion of the electorate; the development of trade unions, Socialism, and Communism; the independence of Belgium, the unification of Italy and Germany; the Crimean, Franco-Prussian, Russo-Japanese, Boer and Balkan wars; the coming of Imperialism; the development of the working and middle classes; plus the exploration of the Earth and the advancement of science. Whew.
In addition to considerable numerical and historical detail, with the discussion of what seemed to be every key person, the book is peppered with anecdotes, quotations and mention of important works of art and literature. For example:

At the time of the appointment of Talleyrand as the French foreign minister and Joseph Fouché as the minister of police, Chateaubriand commented that this was “vice leaning on the arm of crime”, and
when the Greek politician Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776 - 1831) was initially unsuccessful in the introduction of the potato to Greece, he had the potatoes surrounded by armed guards at the waterfront in Nafplio. The local inhabitants were then convinced of their value and stole them all.

There is a lot of fascinating stuff here, but I was especially enlightened by the author’s discussion of serfs; how they functioned, their importance in different countries, and the consequence of the abolition of serfdom. He commented that there were slaves in Europe, notably Gypsies in Romania. I also especially liked his final summary of the details of the coming of the first World War in the final chapter. The book is clearly an extraordinary accomplishment. ( )

Péssimo! Para um autor tão prestigiado quanto este seria expectável uma obra muito muito melhor! Não está em causa a sua erudição, nem o seu conhecimento da História. Em causa está a sua falta de talento literário ao não conseguir dar um sentido à sua narrativa, ao revelar-se incapaz de tornar interessante o seu conhecimento sobre o tema.
Esta escrita positivista limitada à narração dos acontecimentos, sem qualquer interpretação dos mesmo, nem sequer qualquer ligação entre eles, é um péssimo serviço prestado à escrita da História. Este livro é um exemplo do academicismo estéril, que leva os académicos a escrever para os académicos. Pois que o façam nos órgãos próprios para esses efeitos, mas que livros secos como este nunca cheguem aos leitores comuns.
Treze meses depois de ter começado a leitura, desisti a meio do livro, na pagina 446. Comprei o livro por causa do título que prometia um tema interessante. Afinal, o título revelou-se o melhor do livro. ( )

Wer jemals die Kraft der europäischen Aufklärung begriffen hat und ihren Übergang in Wissenschaft, Erfindungen und Technologien, Gleichberechtigung und Demokratie erfassen will, aber auch den danach folgenden Despotismus, Nationalismus und Rassenwahn, muss das 19. Jahrhundert mit seine vielfältigen europäischen Bewegungen und Wechselwirkungen begreifen.

Selten habe ich ein besseres Geschichtsbuch, kein spannenderes und deskriptiveres gelesen, weitgehend frei von Meinungen, die uns heute leider überschatten, wenn Politologen oder Historiker predigen. Fakten, Fakten und Geschichten, Menschen und Handelnde, ihre Ideen und Lösungen - wir lernen auf über 1000 Seiten, wie damalige Menschen zu denken, die sich den Möglichkeiten der Industrialisierung und der Globalisierung öffnen mussten.

In jedem Kapitel blicken wir zunächst auf eine konkrete Person und ihr Schicksal. Im ersten Kapitel (Das Erbe der Revolution) ist es der Steinmetz Jakob Walter (1788-1864), der als Soldat aus Württemberg in die Grande Armee des Napoleon eintrat, mit ihr nach Moskau und wieder zurück in die Heimat nach Ellwangen marschierte.

Alleine dieser Schock des Erlebten, aufgeschrieben in den Lebenserinnerungen des Jakob Walter, ist dieses Buch wert. Geschichte wird lebensnah und fühlbar, ein grandioser Schachzug von Richard J. Evans, für dessen Buch man wirklich dankbar sein muss. ( )

Evans chooses the encyclopaedic approach here: an endless number of mini-essays on various topics, with huge information dumps included. That sounds awful, but the genius of this book lies in i) its organization; ii) Evans's prose; iii) Evans's eye for detail.

i) No matter what you're interested in, you can find it in this book, and it will all be in one place, and it will be coherent. He covers the entire continent, the entire history of the continent, and all aspects of that history. Do you want to read all of the parts with equal attention? No. I could care less about the details of battles fought in the German hinterlands, but if I ever need to know about it, by golly do I know where to look.

ii) Pristine, clear and balanced.

iii) He has an astonishing eye for anecdotes and details that help most subjects come to life.

My main criteria for judging history written about periods I'm not knowledgeable in is very simple: does this book make me want to learn more? The answer in this case is, very much yes. Why do I know so little about the Balkans? Why do I know so little about anything?

My only real complaint is that Evans is awful on 'culture'. He has a historian's taste, which means a more or less philistine-level understanding of literature: does this novel provide an anecdote I can use in a lecture? That's no way to judge books.

He does seem slightly better when it comes to music, though. ( )

Covers an enormous subject with relative brevity and wit. The nineteenth century of Europe was a time of tremendous change and yet it is not that different from modern times. ( )