This volume offers a fresh perspective on the complex transformative dynamics following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. By framing the period as an era of global restructuring, post-war realignment, and the resettling of options that gained momentum after 1815, the chapters provide a new approach to the open futures of the 'Restoration' era.

Highlighting signatures of disruption, change, and adaptation, contributors from six European countries and the US combine global, transnational, and regional perspectives. The volume explores crisis resolution, social dislocation, the exploration of new opportunities in industry and commerce, repercussions on the global economy of empires, the transformation of international civil society, and the emergence of transnational public spheres that fostered later politicisation. By emphasizing economic dynamics, the reinvention of governance, and questions of politics on a global scale, the book makes an innovative contribution to the reassessment of the post-Napoleonic age and reconfigures the 'Restoration' era.

Ute Planert is Professor of Modern History at the University of Cologne, Germany. She has previously been Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, and held the Hannah Arendt Visiting Chair of German and European History at the University of Toronto.