Birth of a Global City

Revolution, war, political turmoil: this is the extraordinary story of how modern London – the world’s first truly global city – was made.

‘Jerry White is the historian of London, and this may be his crowning achievement … Brilliant’ DAVID KYNASTON, author of Austerity Britain

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars changed London beyond recognition. In this brilliant portrait of these pivotal years, acclaimed historian Jerry White reveals how conflict and political upheaval on the Continent transformed Britain’s capital forever.

For some Londoners, war brought wealth; for others, poverty and riots. Patriots clamoured for Boney’s defeat; radicals sought to emulate the reforms pioneered across the Channel. Crucially, the chaos and uncertainty engulfing mainland Europe at the turn of the century drove an exodus of aristocrats, bankers and merchants to Britain’s capital, establishing London as the world’s leading financial centre. The city’s docks became the heart of global trade; imperial expansion revived London’s slave trade; and financiers like the Rothschilds provided the gold that crushed Napoleon at Waterloo.

Ultimately, as White vividly shows, these dramatic and turbulent years ushered in the ‘British Century’ – a hundred years of British capitalist innovation, naval supremacy and imperial power – and made London the remarkable global city we know today.

‘A compelling trip through the dirt, drama and danger of London at the turn of the nineteenth century’ MICHAEL TAYLOR, author of Impossible Monsters

‘This is Jerry White at his best. Elegantly written, thought-provoking, fascinating’ EMMA GRIFFIN, author Liberty’s Dawn