Book excerpt: The Long Nineteenth Century, 1750-1914 is a global history textbook with a difference. It is a guide for students to the actions and experiences by which communities and individuals in different parts of the world constructed, contested, and were affected by major trends and events in the global past. The book explores the global history of the 19th century holistically. Its content is framed in chapters that tackle themes rather than geographic regions or chronological sub-divisions. Moreover, in order to connect human experiences and perspectives with global trends and events, each chapter – whether it focuses on politics or religion, economics or environment – is underpinned by an approach emphasizes social and cultural history. Through its pages, students critically encounter important global trends and key events from the Industrial Revolution to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The book ends with an epilogue on the First World War that brings all of the themes of the volume together in one place and also provides a segue into the mid-20th century.