The Middle Kingdoms

A New History of Central Europe

De: Martyn Rady

Narrado por: John Curless

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

A comprehensive look at a misunderstood history

Although broad in scope and detailed in content, this historical look at a generally poorly understood region is lively and quite readable. Reminiscent of a good novel, it moves along briskly, with intrigue and continuity, leading almost to the present day. It’s a work of profound erudition.

Great book

I really enjoyed the performance and the story. The book covers comprehensively covers the history of Central Europe over a vast amount of time.

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.

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!

interesting sweep of 1000 years

Nice broad sweep of the politics and general living conditions. Some of the key events would have benefitted from more detail, and some of the detailed discussions focus on obscure events (e.g., a hard rock group from the Soviet Block).

Masterful, Fantastically Educational

The Author and reader here are to be congratulated. This presentation was so exceptional and contained numerous facts and historically significant information….i purchased the book for my personal reference library. The author meticulously addresses each major period in the development and maturation of Central Europe. Both the book … and the narration here … highlight facts for sure, but go further in emphasizing the impact of these facts and surrounding circumstances on the central region. Further, the author does an exceptional job of weaving Central European events into world wide impact. This entire audiobook and presentation was well worth the investment of time. Do not miss this excellent work.

Thorough

Learned a lot, great narration, pretty dry and fact based. Learned more about the Low Countries which helps understanding.

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.

Monumental work

Outstanding history book. High quality research (I am Hungarian and could verify its history). The narrator is fantastic. Interesting and animated reading. The pronunciations are as close is one can master in so many languages. I very much enjoy the book even though the amount of information is overwhelming. Thank you.

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