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.

A weighty history dragged down by its narrator

I’ve read my share of serious history books, and I’m familiar with how challenging it can be for historians to capture the complexity and nuance of any period and society in a way that keeps a readers interest. This kind of writing also presents its own challenge to readers. That’s why I love reading and listening to them. But I’ve never had the experience of a narrator placing sound ahead of sense. Ryan’s narration throughout is all grave tones, entirely burying the meaning and substance of the events, trends, and persons being discussed by the author. He certainly goes to great lengths to pronounce his place names accurately. But not once did I get the impression that he had even a cursory understanding of or care for what the author had intended to communicate about the history of this extraordinary polity; instead he seemed solely interested in enunciating each and every sentence in the most long-winded and ponderous way imaginable. Bizarre, self-absorbed and, most unforgivably, dull. I’d rather not have given any stars for performance.

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.

It's good

The narrator does jump around in the time line but it all comes together. And I liked to listen to it.

Fascinating exhaustive overview of the Empire; narrator overacts and mispronounces enough to actually be engaging

Definitely not the first book you should read about Central Europe, the book expects pretty significant foreknowledge of European history and geography but if you don't need to look on a map to know where Regensburg or Lorraine or Pomerania are, you should be pretty good. Not a narrative history but a combined study of various aspects of the Empire's cultural, political, economic, and geographic context, in discrete sections.

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.

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.

A Great Work

A very detailed and informative volume on many facets of an immense subject. It is not a linear narrative but more of a series of analyses ranging from daily life, law and order, governance, etc. that jump from century to century. The author was very thourough and tried to convey a objective light on what has and continues to be a nationalistic topic.

I would highly recommend this book to any lover of European history.

Vital Info for the Student of history

I learned so much listening to this book that I listened to it again. As a public school student, I was taught a lot of bullet points in European History. The topics covered in this book filled in a lot of gaps for me on the HRE, Central Europe and moments in history that shaped the present day. This was a vital read for me in my quest to wrap my head around European History and the way it shapes my world.