A History of Modern Europe John Merriman is the Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University. A specialist in nineteenth century French history, Merriman earned his Ph. D at the University of Michigan. He is the author of many books, including The Margins of City Life: Explorations on the French Urban Frontier, 1815-1851 ; Red City: Limoges and the French Nineteenth Century ; The Agony of the Republic: The Repression of the Left in Revolutionary France, 1848-1851 ; and, most recently, The Stones of Balazuc: A French Village in Time (Norton, 2002). He regularly teaches the survey of modern European history at Yale.