
Heart of Europe
A History of the Holy Roman Empire
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Narrated by:
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Napoleon Ryan
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By:
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Peter H. Wilson
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.
Heart of Europe traces the empire from its origins within Charlemagne's kingdom in 800 to its demise in 1806. By the mid-tenth century, its core rested in the German kingdom, and ultimately its territory stretched from France and Denmark to Italy and Poland. Yet the empire remained abstract, with no fixed capital and no common language or culture. The source of its continuity and legitimacy was the ideal of a unified Christian civilization, but this did not prevent emperors from clashing with the pope over supremacy. Though the title of Holy Roman Emperor retained prestige, rising states such as Austria and Prussia wielded power in a way the empire could not. While it gradually lost the flexibility to cope with political, economic, and social changes, the empire was far from being in crisis until the onslaught of the French revolutionary wars.
©2016 Peter H. Wilson (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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Dense
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A weighty history dragged down by its narrator
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Decent book, Narrator Easy to Tune Out
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Mr. Napoleon Ryan is a splendid reader, and he displays just the right degree of gravitas one would expect when listening to a work of this high calibre. His pronunciation of German terms is very good, and this makes it easy to understand what the author has in his mind. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as I found to my disgust in listening to a Bismarck biography. I am happy to recommend this book to any reader interested in his European heritage.
Excellent book, brilliantly read.
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Not a linear history
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Well written & read,, if a touch on the dry side.
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The book jumps from one year to the other, it's really hard to contextualize the chapters, the writer give for granted that the listener has already a good understanding of historical regions, terminology, and even currencies.
Good narrator, bookish narrative
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Wonderful Overall
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It's good
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Narrator overacts, it was a bit grating to me at first with how dry the text is but combined with his difficulty with pronunciation (in a book spanning a thousand years and a dozen languages) I ended up finding pretty effective at keeping me engaged, even if I'm just giggling at the German.
Fascinating exhaustive overview of the Empire; narrator overacts and mispronounces enough to actually be engaging
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