The Pursuit of Power by Richard Evans.

I am approaching the end of the book and it is great. A very thorough review of European history from 1815 to 1914 (or so). Not just the kings and revolutionaries, but also (and in great and insightful detail) the technological, social and cultural changes that created the modern world. A great reference book, but also easy to read and always interesting.

By the way, someone here was reading "Age of anger" (which I just got from the library last week and which looks awful, as expected; tendentious and cherry-picked from the git-go, with unfounded assumptions and opinions slyly and casually passed off with an "as everyone knows" air in practically every paragraph), and I wonder what you made of it?
I will have more on it later, but Pankaj is something of an obsession with me because he so completely personifies all that is wrong with postmarxist leftist "scholarship" (you can see my rant about of a previous book here , I hope to edit and fix it someday, but you will get the point)