
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
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...




















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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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.
Comprehensive and fresh
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Superb in Scope and Detail
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My Favorite Historian
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a thorough history
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A lot of everything all in one place
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Excellent book!
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gave me a lot to think about
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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.
Comprehensive overview of a difficult subject
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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.
It's a long haul but worth it
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great summary of european history
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