Europe

A History

By: Norman Davies

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 61 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Tantor

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)

Superb in Scope and Detail

l so enjoyed Norman Davies' story of Europe I may start it again sometime very soon.

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.

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.

Excellent book!

Both the scope and depth of this book is amazing. The narration is very good

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.