Heart of Europe

A History of the Holy Roman Empire

De: Peter H. Wilson

Narrado por: Napoleon Ryan

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 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Hugely impressive...Wilson is an assured guide through the millennium-long labyrinth of papal - imperial relations." ( Literary Review)

Dense

This is an interesting history but quite dense. An admirable scholarly effort but difficult to completely follow without a map in front of you as the names of principalities, noble families, regions and titles are easy to confound.

Well written & read,, if a touch on the dry side.

Enjoyed it, but am stunned that Prince Eugene of Savoy didn't receive a single mention.

Good narrator, bookish narrative

The narrator is for sure professional, but the speech lacks soul, also because of the bookish text.
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.

Wonderful Overall

Very educational and enjoyable. There were times I got so lost in the story telling I forgot what I was doing. My only gripe is that it doesn’t go in chronological order, which confused me in the beginning but then as I continued I got used to it. Over all very enjoyable history book, learned a lot of new things.

Dense but enjoyable book

Well researched and written on the subject matter. narration is easy to follow and enjoyable. The book can be difficult to follow at times since it is organized by topics such as culture or economy rather than chronologically, but the author makes that clear going into the book. it just means you may have to go back and re-listen a little closer at some points. The book is worth the listen though.