Europe
A history from the ice age to the modern age
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A monumental history of people, power and ideas
From the Ice Age to the Cold War, from Reykjavik to the Volga, from Minos to Margaret Thatcher, Norman Davies tells the entire story of Europe in a single volume. Moving seamlessly across centuries and borders, he explores politics, war, religion, culture and science to show how diversity, cooperation and conflict have forged a shared identity.
A triumph of storytelling and scholarship, Europe challenges myths of East versus West and highlights the common threads of art, intellect and endurance that unite its nations. Richly detailed yet beautifully readable, this is the most ambitious history of the continent ever undertaken.
‘Monumental, authoritative… a book for enquiring minds of all ages’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A brilliant achievement ... a book everyone should read’ A.C. Grayling, Financial Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The pre-eminent scholar of Polish history, Davies (God's Playground and Heart of Europe) expands his focus to all of Europe. While the book is bulky, its size is hardly adequate to a complete history of the continent from pre-history to the dismantling of the Soviet Union. In addition, as one might expect, Davies has taken great pains to treat countries other than England, France and Germany as legitimate parts of Europe--not just as the thresholds over which barbarians crossed. ("For some reason it has been the fashion among some historians to minimize the impact of the Magyars," Davies writes when discussing what would become central Europe. "All this means is that the Magyars did not reach Cambridge.") The book works because his subject is not the constituent countries but the continent as a whole. Thus, while Elizabeth I gets one brief mention in passing, Aristide Briand, the French foreign minister who tried to effect a Franco-German reconciliation until the Nazis won power, gets several paragraphs. Aside from defining what Europe is and giving all countries their due, Davies also tries to show the joys of an inclusive reading of historical subjects (he disparages excessive specialization and writes admiringly of the Annales school). A master of broad-brushstroke synthesis, Davies navigates through the larger historical currents with the detail necessary to a well-written engaging narrative.
