Book excerpt: This early work by Francis Sydney Marvin was originally published in 1921 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Recent Developments in European Thought' is a work on the historical changes that have shaped modern Europe. Francis Sidney Marvin was born in 1863, in London, son of Francis Bentham Marvin and his wife Julia Chase. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School in London and went on to study lassics and modern history at St. John's College, Oxford. Marvin retained a keen interest in history throughout his life and organised many courses and lectures on the subject to promote interest in the field. He wrote several notable works, including Progress and History (1924), The Evolution of World-Peace (1933), and The leadership of the world (1914). Francis Sidney Marvin died in 1943, in Barnet, at the age of eighty.