Description
By (author) Brendan Simms; By (author) Simms Brendan
Short /annotation
Tells the story of a group of highly competitive and mutually suspicious dynasties, and also of a continent uniquely prone to interference from ”semi-detached” elements, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain and the United States.
Brendan Simms”s formidable, game-changing history of Europe
In this marvelously ambitious and exciting book, Brendan Simms tells the story of Europe”s constantly shifting geopolitics and the peculiar circumstances that have made it both so impossible to dominate, but also so dynamic and ferocious. It is the story of a group of highly competitive and mutually suspicious dynasties, but also of a continent uniquely prone to interference from ”semi-detached” elements, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain and (just as centrally to Simms”s argument) the United States.
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Brendan Simms is a historian of unusual range and ability … this book is driven by two great master-ideas, and there is hardly a page in it where their presence is not felt … the reader always has the exhilarating sense of moving swiftly onwards, in a kind of turbocharged Rolls-Royce of historical argumentation … truly powerful and original
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Ought to sit on the desk of every politician, pundit and policy wonk … [Simms] marshals the great events … with a breath-stopping assurance. Panoramic, multi-faceted … sweeping, well-paced narrative … awesome command. This is top-down European history, diplomatic and political, seen from the soaring eagle”s eye. But what an eagle; and what an eye
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Europe is a superb, sure-footed analysis of how this center of world civilization, technology, and warfare evolved since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It is unabashedly political history, and the better for being so. Simms”s acumen and sharp opinions are a joy to read. This book will be appreciated both by the general reader, and by history teachers everywhere
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Brendan Simms”s new history [is] especially timely. He has, in effect, dropped a big stone into the European pond and stood back to watch the ripples spread … Compelling and provocative … This is sweeping history, told with verve and panache, and it is all the more refreshing for that
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This is a brilliant and beautifully written history. From the Holy Roman Empire to the Euro, Brendan Simms shows that one of the constant preoccupations of Europeans has always been the geography, the power and the needs of Germany. Europe is a work of extraordinary scholarship delivered with the lightest of touches. It will be essential, absorbing reading for anyone trying to understand both the past and the present of one of the most productive and most dangerous continents on earth
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A stimulating, impressive history that starts with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and extends to the present day … perspicacious and flexible … an excellent read and its insights into the grand themes of European history are penetrating and lucidly argued
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Unrepentantly old-fashioned, lively and erudite … The book is centrally concerned, rightly, with Germany, which Simms knows at first hand. Its great strength is that you are always reminded that European countries did not grow autonomously … Europe is very ambitious in scope … The references are prodigious, multilingual and extremely useful … Simms knows what he is talking about
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How do you write a history of Europe … without making it seem like a list of dates? The answer of Brendan Simms in his new book is both simple and brilliantly successful: take a strong thesis and argue it through from start to finish … Simm
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