It would be wrong to consider the 19th century as distant or over. In many aspects, such as the intense politicization of European societies, the diversity of mobilization and protest practices, ideological and cultural inventiveness, and critical reflection on modernity and progress, this period is a laboratory rich in experience and lessons.

Restoring the great political dynamics and tensions that run through it allows us not only to better understand the forms of historical change, but also to find one's bearings in an uncertain present. By placing the imperial expansion of Europe in the context of the globalization of the time and its interactions with America, Africa and Asia, Nicolas Delalande and Blaise Truong-Loï propose a history of the 19th century that is neither homogeneous nor self-centered, but profoundly renewed by the contributions of the most recent research in history and social sciences.