SOURCE: “Out with the Old, In with the New,” in Washington Post Book World, June 9, 1991, pp. 1, 18.

In the following review of The Birth of the Modern, Caute commends Johnson's writing and use of anecdotes, but finds the book's underlying Thatcherite message and expansive digressions tenuously related to its purported theme.

Paul Johnson's 1,000-page book [The Birth of the Modern] reports everything we might wish to know about the world during the 15 years after the fall of Napoleon—and some more. The Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1815 and fell in 1830; across the Channel, the British settled down to a period of Tory-controlled constitutional stability, and of virtual world hegemony. Although Johnson accords the emergent United States respectful attention, his chosen chronological frontiers clearly indicate a Eurocentric perspective. The British are the star players; the wider world is largely their chessboard. Devoted to balance and moderation, they frequently blast everyone...