Europe: A History
Europe: A History book cover

Europe: A History

Paperback – January 20, 1998

by
Price
$25.20
Format
Paperback
Pages
1392
Publisher
Harper Perennial
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0060974688
Dimensions
6.12 x 2.3 x 9.25 inches
Weight
3 pounds

Description

“The book’s true originality lies in its all-inclusive scope and erudition, and literary panache with which the story of Europe is told.” — Time (Atlantic edition) “Davies’s copious unfolding of the entire course of European history exhausts the subject but certainly not the reader, for he maintains a remarkable fluidity throughout.” — Booklist (starred review) “At last, a truly pan-European history that rests firmly on solid scholarship and exhibits wisdom and literary elegance; highly recommended.” — Library Journal (starred review) “A magisterial work, sweeping in its analysis, illuminating in its insights, and erudite in its scholarship.” — Zbigniew Brzezinski “Davies reveals a comprehensive design, tremendous narrative power, a remarkable gift for compression, and a shrewd sense of overall balance.” — New York Review of Books Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Europe A History By Norman Davies HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Norman DaviesAll right reserved. ISBN: 0060974680 Chapter One Peninsula Environment and Prehistory There is a marked determinism about many descriptions of Europe's environmental history. Many Europeans have assumed that their 'continent' was so magnificently endowed that it was destined by Nature for world supremacy. And many have imagined that Europe's good fortune would somehow last forever. 'The empire of climate', wrote Montesquieu in 1748, 'is the first of all empires'; and he proceeded to show that the European climate had no rival. For Montesquieu, as for his many successors, Europe was synonymous with Progress. 1 There has also been a good deal of national parochialism. Even the founder of human geography, the great Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918), one of the intellectual ancestors of the Annales school, was not above a touch of Gallic chauvinizing. The geography of France, he stressed, was marked by the keynote of variety. 'Against the diversities which assail her', he wrote, 'France sets her force d'assimilarion , her power of assimilation. She transforms everything that she receives.' On Britain, in contrast, he quotes the doggerel lines about 'this paltry little isle, I with acres few and weather vile'. One hundred years later one finds Fernand Braudel doing similar things. 2 Variety is indeed a characteristic of France's superb make-up. But it is not a French monopoly; it is a hallmark of Europe as a whole. In fact, the Peninsula of Europe is not really a 'continent' at all: it is not a self-contained land mass. At c .10 million km 2 (3.6 million square miles), it is less than one-quarter the size of Asia, one-third of Africa, one-half of each of the Americas. Modern geographers classify it, like India, as a subcontinent of Eurasia: 'a cape of the old continent, a western appendix of Asia'. Even so, it is impossible to deny that Europe has been endowed with a formidable repertoire of physical features. Europe's landforms, climate, geology, and fauna have combined to produce a benign environment that is essential to an understanding of its development. Europe's landforms do not resemble those of any other continent or sub-continent. The depressions to north and south have been flooded by the ocean to form two parallel sea-chains which penetrate deep into the interior. In the north, the North Sea-Baltic sea lane stretches 1,500 miles (2,500 km) from the Atlantic to Russia. In the south, the Mediterranean-Black Sea system stretches over 2,400 miles (4,000 km) from Gibraltar to the Caucasus. Within these protected seas lie a vast complex of lesser gulfs and a huge spangle of islands. As a result, the ratio of shoreline to landmass is exceptionally high: at c .37,000 km, or more than 23,000 miles, the European shoreline is almost exactly the length of the Equator. For early Man, this was perhaps the most important measure of accessibility. What is more, since the shores of the Peninsula lie in the temperate latitudes of Eurasia's western extremity, they are served by a user-friendly climate. Prevailing ocean winds blow westerly; and it is the western coasts of the great continents that stand to benefit most from the moderating influx of sea air. Yet few other west-facing continental coasts can actually enjoy the advantage. Elsewhere, if the western shore is not blocked by towering peaks or icy currents, it is lined by deserts such as the Sahara, the Kalahari, or the Atacama. The climate of Europe, therefore, is unusually temperate for its latitude. Generally speaking, under the influence of the Gulf Stream, northern Europe is mild and moist; southern Europe is relatively warm, dry, and sunny. Central and eastern Europe enjoy elements of a true continental climate, with clear, cold winters and baking hot summers. But everywhere the weather is changeable. Extremes are usually avoided. Even in European Russia, where the difference between the mean temperatures of January and July can approach 45°C, the range is only half what it is in Siberia. The wettest district in Europe is in western Norway, with an average annual precipitation of 3,500 mm (138 inches). The dryest district surrounds the Caspian Sea, with less than 250 mm ( inches) per annum. The coldest spot is Vorkuta, with a mean January chill of -20 °C; the hottest is disputed between Seville and Astrakhan, both with mean July roasts of +29 °C. These extremes do not compare with their counterparts in Asia, Africa, or the Americas. Europe's temperate climate favoured the requirements of primitive agriculture. Most of the Peninsula lies within the natural zone of cultivable grasses. There were abundant woodlands to provide fuel and shelter. Upland pasture often occurs in close proximity to fertile valleys. In the west and south, livestock can winter in the open. Local conditions frequently encouraged special adaptations. The extensive coastline, combined with the broad Continental Shelf, gave fishermen rich rewards. The open plains, especially of the Danube Basin, preserved the nomadic horse-rearing and cattle-driving of the Eurasian steppes. In the Alps -- which take their name from the high pastures above the tree-line -- transhumance has been practised from an early date. Europe's climate was probably also responsible for the prevalent skin-colour of its human fauna. Moderate levels of sunshine, and hence of ultra-violet radiation, meant that moderate levels of pigmentation came to be encoded in the Peninsula's gene pool. Certainly, in historic times pale faces have predominated, together with blond or golden hair and blue eyes in the northern regions. The great majority of Europeans and their descendants can be easily recognized as such from their looks. Until recently, of course, it was impossible to take anything but the most superficial racial factors into consideration. The analysis of blood groups, body tissues, and DNA imprints, for example, was unknown until the late twentieth century; and it was not realized just how much genetic material all human beings have in common. As a result, racial theorists were apt to draw conclusions from external criteria such as skin colour, stature, or skull form. In reality, the racial make-up of Europe's population has always displayed considerable variety. The tall, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, platinum blonds of the so-called 'Nordic race' which established itself in Scandinavia forms the only group remotely qualified for the label of 'white'. They bore little resemblance to the squat, brown-eyed, swarthy-skinned and black-haired people of the so-called 'Mediterranean' or 'Indo-Mediterranean Race' which dominated large parts of the south. . . . Continues... Excerpted from Europe by Norman Davies Copyright © 2006 by Norman Davies. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Features & Highlights

  • Here is a masterpiece of historical narrative that stretches from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, as it tells the story of Europe, East and West. Norman Davies captures it all--the rise and fall of Rome, the sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests, the Papal struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the powerhouse of the world, and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating World Wars. This is the first major history of Europe to give equal weight to both East and West, and it shines light on fascinating minority communities, from heretics and lepers to Gypsies, Jews, and Muslims. It also takes an innovative approach, combining traditional narrative with unique features that help bring history alive: 299 time capsules scattered through the narrative capture telling aspects of an era. 12 -snapshots offer a panoramic look at all of Europe at a particular moment in history. Full coverage of Eastern Europe—100 maps and diagrams, 72 black-and-white plates. All told, Davies's
  • Europe
  • represents one of the most important and illuminating histories to be published in recent years.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
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Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

An invaluable desk reference as well as fascinating history

This book has proven to be one of my most valuable desk references. I wished I had bought the hardback, given the wear and tear on it over the 6 years I have had it. Davies has done a marvelous job of condensing a tremendous amount of history into one volume. He approaches it in a three-fold way. He provides a richly flowing narrative that covers the story of Europe much like an epic novel. He intersperses the narrative with an extensive series of "Capsules" that take in special events and interesting asides in the development of a European identity. Lastly, he provides a massive set of appendices that cover everything from royal lines to WWII death tolls.
The narrative is divided into a set of 12 chapters that cover broad periods of time starting with the environment and prehistory of the contintnet to the Cold War era. Davies has a tremendous command of the events which shaped Europe. His strength lies in his understanding of Eastern Europe, and in particular Poland, expanding the breadth of the continent beyond its usual eastern borders. In fact one might say that Davies has made the case to rethink European history along Eastern European lines, which is the logical extension of his earlier two-volume history of Poland. He takes in Russian history, with special attention to its Slavic roots. He deals with the inevitable conflicts that arose and provides good summaries of the World Wars. He deals with the restoration of Western Europe and the demise of Eastern Europe following WWII along ideological lines, noting how one rose at the expense of the other. He chooses to end his narrative with the collapse of the Soviet Union, providing a short epilogue on his thoughts concerning the new allignments in Europe.
The numerous capsules are a very interesting approach in dealing with cultural aspects of Europe. He offers an astonishing array of anecdotes in these capsules such as the origins of Dr. Faustas to the transcendental nature of the famous war song, Lili Marlene. Although he covers much of the cultural history of Europe in his narrative, it is in these capsules that one finds many fascinating aspects of this cultural history and how it has evolved over the century.
The appendices cover a lot of ground, illustruating some of the iconography of Europe, providing extensive lists of everything from the Popes and Patriarchs of Rome to a selection of the works and authors banned by the Papal Index. He provides numerous maps and charts to help guide you through the rough and tumble history of Europe, and provides accurate death tolls of the World Wars. He also provides extensive book notes as well as an excellent index to help guide you in subsequent searches.
This is probably the best one-volume history of Europe available today and one that will serve you will in gaining an understanding of this rich and varied continent. His rich prose makes it a pleasure to read and his excellent index allows for quick searches to look up key events. A book that will find its place with all your other desk references or by your armchair for a long and enjoyable read.
135 people found this helpful
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A Unique Balanced Perspective On European History

This is a totally absorbing, sparkling romp over the just completed millennium of European history. A fantastic job, although I will agree with other reviewers that this can be a tough read if you are not already familiar with much of the range of ethnic and national history.
Davies clearly states his premise in the Introduction.....his desire to provide a single volumn survey that provides an evenly magnified view from both the number of pages per year and the geographic/ethnic perspective of the writer. His objective is to avoid focusing on recent centuries or recently predominant cultures at the expense of more distant or less studied times or regions. This alone is a worthy effort and makes the entire tome almost an obligatory read for a serious amateur historian like myself.
Davies provides several ingenious aids to your perspective as you plow through this vast field of information. There are 300 capsules that entertain as well as provide tangential sideshows. (Did you know that Pope John Paul II approved the exhumation of Elizabeth of Austria's tomb in 1973 in an attempt to foser Polish patriotism, yet 16 people may have died from the bacilli that were released? Or, how about stretching your mind by trying to comprehend the horror of Stalin's genocidal act of state policy as he created an artificial famine by cordoning off the Ukraine in 1932-3 until 7 million people were dead?) This is a powerful book.
Even better is the orientation of the European maps throughout the book so that you are looking at them with the west uppermost, thus viewing the continent as the first settlers (and more importantly, central and eastern Europeans) perceived their relationships. Especially for those of us with anglized perspectives, it's a very good thing to see the distance and small scale with which the western European nations hold by comparison with the mass of the rest of the continent.
This book is remarkable in the unique perceptual orientations it provides. When added to the balanced approach of the quantity of text, there is a true effort to provide a non-western European view and this is very much needed. A great job and a worthy read for anyone serious about the past of our species.
64 people found this helpful
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My European Guidebook

I lived in Europe for 3 1/2 years while in the Army. I lived in Germany and was deployed to Kosovo for over a year. I traveled to nearly 20 countries and countless cities in that time. This book was with me for it all.

With this book Davies attempts the enormous task of trying to plot the entire history of Europe from its creation up until modern times. Although no work of this type could possibly be complete in one volume, Davies does a very good job in hitting almost everything you could want.

This is essentially a reference book. It gives you a good starting point on almost any subject or period you are interested in. I would suggest a basic knowledge of European history before trying to read this cover to cover like I did.

Even though it is rather bulky I took it with me on all of my travels. Every city I went to I used this to maximize my travel so that I could focus on what I thought would be most interesting. Lets face it a normal guidebook will bring you to the places a tourist would find interesting and not what is necessarily historically significant.

Although there are a lot of books that are more specific than this work in any given area none are as complete a compendium as this work is. If you are a student of history then this book is a necessity.
48 people found this helpful
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I wanted to love it.

If you want a one volume history of Europe, you're really talking about reading this or [[ASIN:0140265619 The Penguin History of Europe]]. Other options in this space are either significantly older and/or highly focused on the Western nations.

In his extensive Introduction, Davies attacks this West-centric history idea of history and makes a case for a history that encompasses everything from the Volga to the Atlantic, making the case that this area is much more interrelated than prior historians have allowed, and that "Eastern Europe" is partly a relic of Cold War conceptions. This is representative, more broadly of his iconoclastic style, which I like, but obviously others will not. His main goal is to bring the entire massive region under one cover. I was sold on this approach, and excited to dive into it.

Davies has been criticized for historical inaccuracies, but in this corrected edition, most of those have been fixed. I find this arm chair quarterbacking ridiculous. A book of this scope is a massive undertaking that only a few have ever even attempted, and with the level of detail he's trying to get, there are bound to be errors on the first outing. So after checking out what I was getting into, I bought this one over Roberts.

The problem with this book is neither it's scope, approach, or accuracy. The problem is the execution. Davies loves to focus on interesting facts that are not really major historical moments, and then throw in major facts in a single sentence. This tendency shows in the huge number of callouts that he puts in the book. In other works, these are fun items to expand your horizon, but here we're talking about more than a hundred pages worth of them. It becomes a distraction. Of course you can ignore these, but these are simply representations of the way the text itself is written.

People have referred to this book as a reference, but that is not the goal. A huge multi-volume work would be used as a reference. This is supposed to be a book you read to get up to speed on the scope of european history. In this goal, Davies falls short. The reader must plough through a lot of detail, which I was prepared for, but I was expecting a better payoff -- a more comprehensive understanding of Europe. A narrative is need to make sense of those facts, and Davies almost completely lacks one.

Take a look at Roberts. He has none of the problems. His book reads like a page-turner by comparison. Don't be deceived into thinking that this longer book will teach you more. When you account for the sidebars, introduction, poetry, footnotes, etc, it's not that much longer, or broader in scope and it's a lot harder to make use of the information.
36 people found this helpful
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History for people who already know it

I'm finding this book less than useful. I bought it in the hopes of learning the general sweep of European history - say, how we got from Julius Caesar to Adolph Hitler. Unfortunately, I'm not really finding out. The first few chapters (geography, Greece, Rome) do a good job of starting with the basics and following civilizations through their courses, as I'd hoped. But starting around the Medieval era, Davies begins to assume you already know the history. Names, places, battles and events, even whole nations are mentioned in passing, without any information on who or what they are or where they came from, as if of course you've already heard of them, and maybe elaborated on later - sometimes much later. He bounces back and forth across Europe and across periods of a century or more, such that it is virtually impossible to form any sort of mental chronology of events or locate the people and events he describes in their proper time and place. (I think he is trying to focus on one area and trend at a time, then back up and follow another historical thread - but it doesn't work.) Sidebars are scattered throughout the book more or less at random, often having nothing whatsoever to do with either the text near them or their titles (though some are interesting tidbits of information). There are very, very few maps or chronologies, most of them located in the large Appendix but not referenced in the text to help you locate things - I've read novels with more maps and chronologies. He frequently quotes what I assume are famous people without bothering to attribute the quotes (or sometimes even to translate them to English!).
I am definitely learning something from this book, but it's slow going and less useful than I'd hoped. If you already know the important names and places, this may be a useful book to help put them in a (much!) broader context. If you're trying to learn them in the first place, I'd recommend trying a different book.
36 people found this helpful
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Wonderful survey of the whole of European history.

As an American in my mid-forties I realized I never was taught much about the history of any other part of the world, except where it intersected with American history or values. After visiting Europe a few times I realized I knew nothing about the various people and their cultures so I looked for a book to help remedy that.

I love this book! It is incredibly dense, but fascinating. I've found that to get the most out of it, and save myself from frequent confusion, I am often doing web searches for names, languages and maps to help me put the writing in perspective and remind me of the geography relative to modern times.

The print is small and the book is well over 1000 pages, but with some patience I've read the entire thing in about 6 months. A smarter person might be able to read it faster, but I was intent on absorbing as much as possible. I see myself keeping this book handy and using it as a reference as I continue to read other books and plan more visits to Europe.

I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a broad understanding of the European continent, and where it's people came from.
30 people found this helpful
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History with an unbelievable twist

I re-read some chapters of this book out of curiosity- I wondered how it would tell the story of an area I am just starting to understand well- WW2- the Eastern Front. First I sought out some background on the USSR- the usual vague references to million upon 10 millions of Bolshevik/Stalinist victims(it just doesn't add up), solemn Gulag atrocity stories and that figure of 50 million victims of Stalin- I had to look up the references-and there's... two! Robert Conquest- Cold War propagandist, and a magazine article from 1990. (Reference 35 for Chapt. XI which also contains alot of dissembling about 'demgraphic gaps'and which include VICTIMS OF WW2 as victims of the Soviet regime!?!) The Eastern Front in WW2 is described using the Great Legend of the German Generals-"Through fields of mounting corpses, the hordes of ill-clothed and ill-armed 'Ivans' kept coming and coming till the German machine-guns overheated...It was an accepted fact of the contest that the Soviet side could sustain casualties of...four to one and still carry the day." His words! Oxford historian! Another- "For most ordinary civilians, the prosoect of serving the Soviets posed the same moral dilemmas as serving the fascists." A total insult to the millions who fought the Nazis and now are lumped together with collaborators and murderous nationalists. This guy's take on WW2 is a little bit Churchill and a whole lotta Goebbels. Unbelievable!
29 people found this helpful
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Not for beginners.

Ashamed as I am to say this, I know little to nothing of Europe's History and I thought it would be nice to increase my knowledge by buying this book and reading through... Big mistake.

This books is on a level that not everyone can follow. It does not explain the why's and how's of European's history. It simply skims through the topics, almost as if it was simply a reminder of what happened. It explains absolutely nothing of the reasons for the wars, it uses old names for certain places without explaining where exactly it is, and the map was incredibly unhelpful. I found myself relying on internet research more than on the book itself. For every 5 minutes of reading, I had to do 1 hour of research to understand what he is talking about.

This book was certainly made for, I suppose, history students and not for the people who are beginning the subject or are just interested in it.

I am currently at chapter 3 and will stop here. I'm going to buy a more detailed book(s) and read them before returning to this (if I ever return.)

For this, I give it one star. Although I can't deny I learned quite a bit about Europe's geography and peninsulas and rivers, the historical information was little more than useless to me.
27 people found this helpful
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The WAR AND PEACE of histories

This is a huge, lovely chunk of a book. It's the best distillation of the truly overwhelming scope of European history written to date, rendered in a fluid narrative style that keeps your attention the way a Tolstoy novel does. Keep this in mind: It takes an enormous amount of time, skill, ego and paper to produce a masterpiece like this. Take your time and savor this rich text. Here are the critical points you should be aware of before you dive in:

1. The author's thesis is that Europe developed internally based on the accumulation and interaction of events that occurred along its periphery, particularly its eastern periphery. The constant shifting of imperial contact points across the geographic and cultural landscape moulds many a paragraph within.

2. The narrative deconstructs the supremacy of western Europe, as we all know that the author's sympathies are in eastern Europe (and Poland in particular). This is not so much a criticism as an observation. You'll come away from this book with more respect for Poland, Austria and Hungary than for England, France and Spain.

3. Cultural and ethnic affiliations of the many peoples discussed in the book imply the author's fundamental assumption that people naturally prefer the company of people like themselves, rather than people different from themselves. The entire thesis rests on the infallibility of ethnic nationalism and its attachment to geography, which won't sit well with some readers. Davies sees a continent of lines rather than spaces.

4. This enormous paperback is printed with relatively low-quality ink and paper (so the publisher can control the cost). It's durability is quite poor, and used copies are certain to be yellowed, with faded text. Go ahead and buy it new.

Now that you've been properly forewarned, sit back and enjoy the ride.
20 people found this helpful
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This book is long

Well, now I know everything about Europe. In truth, this is a pretty spectacular background to any other reading (or listening to classical music, or viewing of art) that you're going to do. My primary feeling upong finishing this (apart from sheer relief of not having to carry it around anymore) was shock at how little I knew, and that was true about every period of history covered. Didn't know anything about the French Revolution, didn't know anything about the magnitude of Stalin, certainly didn't know anything about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, I mean, where else can you get that knowledge!

Davies has a central thesis that Eastern Europe has been ignored and considered irrelevant, and that this has skewed the world's view of history. We all want to feel good about what happened in WWII, so we tout the salvation of Western Europe. Poland however was massacred repeatedly by the two greatest monsters of the 20th century, and that was deemed an acceptable price to pay. Poland is the star of this book as it is Davies focus of study as well, but the whole of Europe is covered as thoroughly as can be expected in a single volume. There are few parts of the book that are not worth a reader's time.

The problems with the book come from the ellision of material, certain major events are skipped or run past, and there are some contrarian positions that seem to be overemphasized, even to the point of offensiveness. For instance, there's a real Stalin is worse than Hitler argument being forwarded, and I felt more than a few times that Hitler's actions were being ameliorated. That obviously leaves a very bad taste, and led me to question what I had been fed over the preceding 923 pages.

I would recommend this with caveats. Keep in mind this is one man and a contrarian historian at that. You don't have to swallow all of this undigested. As with most books, it's one that you need to keep a running argument with. That being said, the arguments presented are revolutionary, and to engage in them is to greatly broaden one's perspective on the world.
19 people found this helpful

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