Europe
A History
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Norman Davies
About this listen
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, and 12 snapshots offer a panoramic look at all of Europe at a particular moment in history. All told, Davies's Europe represents one of the most important and illuminating histories to be published in recent years.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©1996, 1997 Norman Davies (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A master of broad-brushstroke synthesis, Davies navigates through the larger historical currents with the detail necessary to a well-written engaging narrative." (Publishers Weekly)
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Story
A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.
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Comprehensive
- By Than on 12-29-19
By: Lincoln Paine
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A History of Europe
- From Pre-History to the 21st Century
- By: Jeremy Black
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A History of Europe is a masterful narrative, bringing together the continent's common threads of history from the end of the ice ages until the present day. Leading historian Professor Jeremy Black takes a journey through the vast sweep of European history, examining events as diverse as the rise of the Roman Empire, the brutal Viking raids, the cultural explosion of the Renaissance period, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the rise of consumer culture in the 21st century.
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A detailed timeline following the beginnings of Europe to the present
- By Bylajohn on 12-18-23
By: Jeremy Black
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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Heart of Europe
- A History of the Holy Roman Empire
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 34 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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Mixed feelings on this one.
- By Stuart Seymour on 09-19-17
By: Peter H. Wilson
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Iran
- A Modern History
- By: Abbas Amanat
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 41 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic.
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A Nuanced, and Objective Masterpiece !!!!!
- By Chris Carl on 01-16-20
By: Abbas Amanat
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The Boundless Sea
- A Human History of the Oceans
- By: David Abulafia
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 41 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, David Abulafia's new book guides listeners along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans - the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian - which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and, of course, people across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
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Like Reading a Dictionary.
- By aaron on 01-10-21
By: David Abulafia
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The Arabs
- A History
- By: Eugene Rogan
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 27 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this definitive history of the modern Arab world, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan draws extensively on Arab sources and texts to place the Arab experience in its crucial historical context for the first time. Tracing five centuries of Arab history, Rogan reveals that there was an age when the Arabs set the rules for the rest of the world. Today, however, the Arab world's sense of subjection to external powers carries vast consequences for both the region and Westerners who attempt to control it.
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Superb Book About the Arab World
- By Nostromo on 05-29-16
By: Eugene Rogan
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The Story of Britain
- From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History
- By: Rebecca Fraser
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 34 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite suffering at the hands of invading Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans, and tyrannical kings and queens, Britons have been renowned since Queen Boudicca for their fierce commitment to the liberty of the individual. Britain's 700-year-old parliamentary democracy has developed from a passion for fairness and the rule of law. In an atmospheric and vivid narrative, Rebecca Fraser takes listeners through key events in the nation's history.
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Love the content hate the voice.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-14-23
By: Rebecca Fraser
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Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World
- By: Philip Matyszak
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This thorough guide explores those civilizations that have faded from the pages of our textbooks but played a significant role in the development of modern society. Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World covers the Hyksos to the Hephthalites and everyone in between, providing a unique overview of humanity's history from approximately 3000 BCE-550 CE. Each entry exposes a diverse culture, highlighting their important contributions.
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Gripping and seamless
- By Mike Heim on 05-13-21
By: Philip Matyszak
What listeners say about Europe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- LiveMind
- 03-23-23
Comprehensive and fresh
A review of European history from prehistory to the end of the 20th century written in a balanced and interesting manner. A must read for any educated person of any ethnic background.
I had read the paperback and could understand when the reader jumps to the sideboxes, but it must be disconcerting and annoying for someone who is not expecting it. The sideboxes should have been announced in the audio version.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kent
- 08-13-21
Superb in Scope and Detail
l so enjoyed Norman Davies' story of Europe I may start it again sometime very soon.
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- bernickus
- 05-14-19
My Favorite Historian
I have read the paperbound version of this book many times and have been waiting a long time for the creation of an audio version. Mr. Davies has a wonderful way of telling history with an enthusiasm that never feels tedious or dry. Other historians write laboriously accurate scholarly assessments of the agreed upon past, while Mr Davies gives the reader his version- no less true - of the story of European history. "A" history, not "the" history of Europe.he pulls off this feat magnificently. i never once got the feeling that even HE was bored writing it', let alone caring how the reader felt. Furthermore, i can't think of a better choice than Derek Perkins voice to narrate this excellent book.
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68 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-14-20
a thorough history
Loved it. A most complicated story, well written and well recorded. Worth the time and effort to hear it to the end.
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- John Hornbuckle
- 08-29-19
A lot of everything all in one place
From the Ice Age to 1996 is an overwhelming task but Davies pulls it off without being too superficial or too involved. The Author is fair and balanced even with the bad guys and the good guys are not always so good. Good starting point for a young historian to gain perspective before becoming involved in specific historical periods or peoples. Never boring and narration was excellent.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Rob
- 05-01-21
Excellent book!
Both the scope and depth of this book is amazing. The narration is very good
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- Nebooru
- 09-23-21
gave me a lot to think about
this is one of those books that makes you want to read 10 more books. very interesting overview, and I want to dig deeper into some individual subjects.
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- kimberly n. abrams
- 06-13-20
Comprehensive overview of a difficult subject
As I listened to this book I realized that so many peoples, cultures, languages, religions, etc. cannot really be contained in one book. The author does an admirable job of trying to do just that, but the subject is just too big in geographical area and timelines, as well as areas cited above, to cover in one book, even if it is 40+ hours long.
That being said, I did learn quite a bit about both well known historical instances and very obscure, but relevant, instances. One of the interesting aspects are the authors little tidbits of trivia that sometimes have some connection to the subject being addressed, but more often not, and many times are anachronistic to the time period being covered. I came to imagine them as little boxes of trivia set in the margins of the text, sort of like a “Europe for Dummies” format. Anyway, I like trivia so it was fun.
My biggest gripe about the book however is the authors liberal use of quotations, poems, titles, etc in the native language of the speaker or author. Sometimes he’d bother to translate the passage, but more often not. So be prepared for a lot of French, Polish, Russian, et al, citations for which, unless you speak that particular language, you will have no clue as to what is being said. I couldn’t decide whether the author was being arrogant and flaunting his knowledge of languages, or he was being extremely correct by not translating them directly into English so as not to lose anything in that translation. Whatever, it was a little infuriating. On the good side, the performer spoke all the languages with what sounded like a flawless accent (I say this because I have no idea how Russian, or Polish, or Lithuanian should sound, but I was convinced he was correct!). Very impressive.
I’d recommend listening to this audiobook if you love history in general, or are looking for an overview with occasional deeper digging into key events of European history.
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- MortonC
- 11-12-22
It's a long haul but worth it
Chapter 1 goes on way too long about the ethos of writing history books. The first 10-15 minutes would have been enough.
After that he gets into actually telling histories and the way he does this is by telling little "capsules" about a given topic and he'll range through a few decades or centuries, as needed to tell that capsule/story, So the book does overall move forward in time, but it goes back and forth over a range, as required to tell each capsule. While this is a little confusing, it's probably a lot clearer than strictly chronological order, where the author would have to say "Remember that king I told you about an hour ago? Well, here is his son continuing that war..."
When he covers a story that I do happen to know something about, he goes through it at high speed and with very little detail, so I'd go "Wow, he missed out a lot there". So that means he's probably doing that with *all* the capsules. If he tried to do a detailed telling of each capsule it would be overwhelming. So props to the author for shrinking it all down to a manageable size.
The one thing I could really do without is the foreign language quotes. By 20 hours in, I was just plain irritated by them. Suffering through 30 seconds of a foreign language (even French, which I understand) did nothing to enhance my appreciation for the material and was just annoying. I could skip over a printed text but it's too annoying to find my phone and skip forward over any quote longer than 30 seconds because you never know how long they'll be until it's too late.
I will give the narrator kudos for, what appeared to me at least, to be excellent pronunciation of the many languages.
I would say that this book is worth the time, if you're patient enough. Though I find that the sections which make most sense are the ones you're already familiar with because you can fill in the many blanks that the author doesn't have time to cover.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-07-19
Well narrated conservative history of Europe
Great narration of a scholarly book which was not best suited to an audio format. As Davis explains at the start, the book does not have a completely linear thread. in paper format one could choose to skip over side excursions and just follow the timeline of events, but in audio you can't. So sometimes keeping track of where one is on the timeline is a bit of work. Some of the short side excursions seem pointless, maybe he thought he was being funny? Be prepared for Davis' conservative slant. He follows the tradition of ignoring, minimizing or disparaging female leaders. But for what it is, it is well written and interesting to listen to.
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23 people found this helpful