The Middle Kingdoms

A New History of Central Europe

By: Martyn Rady

Narrated by: John Curless

Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

An essential new history of Central Europe, the contested lands so often at the heart of world history

Central Europe has long been infamous as a region beset by war, a place where empires clashed and world wars began. In The Middle Kingdoms, Martyn Rady offers the definitive history of the region, demonstrating that Central Europe has always been more than merely the fault line between West and East. Even as Central European powers warred with their neighbors, the region developed its own cohesive identity and produced tremendous accomplishments in politics, society, and culture. Central Europeans launched the Reformation and Romanticism, developed the philosophy of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and advanced some of the twentieth century’s most important artistic movements.

Drawing on a lifetime of research and scholarship, The Middle Kingdoms tells as never before the captivating story of two thousand years of Central Europe’s history and its enduring significance in world affairs.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Martyn Rady (P)2022 Basic Books

Amazing narrative

This has been the comprehensive historical work on central Europe I've been waiting for. It goes in depth into origins and histories of the lesser written about countries such as Poland, Hungary, Polmeralia and Pomerania and more importantly, how they all interacted and impacted each other. 10/10.

COMPREHENSIVE

This is a well thought out review of the East Central a European countries’ histories. The flow of the narrative carried the listener from the early Middle Ages right up to Russia’s capture of the Crimea and beyond. The listener is able to piece together various trends through major headlines in recent times. It blended the succession of the Imperial Rulers with events that shaped the region. Very lengthy but extremely worthwhile and thought provoking.

Voice Edit

Remove voice edit at just after 19 hours, 27 minutes. Just wanted to pass on in case it’s an easy technical fix.
Very informative. Enjoying this very much!

The Middle Kingdoms

This is a great history book of central and Eastern Europe. As a reader and listener you will gain a lot of knowledge of this area of Europe from Medieval to present. The reader was enjoyable and the performance was great.
This is a excellent source as an introduction to the history for any scholar or lover of history

Marred by the errors in the modern section

The author states matter-of-factly that the Soviets joined WWII on the side of the Allies in 1941, blithely ignoring the fact that 1941 is the year they switched sides after being betrayed by their Nazi ally. Poland, Finland, the Baltic republics, and Japan would all agree that 1941 is far from the year the Soviet Union joined the conflict. This is just one of several basic factual errors that mar the modern section of the book, much of which was otherwise excellent.