Vanished Kingdoms

The Rise and Fall of States and Nations

De: Norman Davies

Narrado por: Derek Perkins

An evocative account of 14 European kingdoms - their rise, maturity, and eventual disappearance.

There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Europe's past is littered with states and kingdoms, large and small, that are scarcely remembered today, and while their names may be unfamiliar - Aragon, Etruria, the Kingdom of the Two Burgundies - their stories should change our mental map of the past. We come across forgotten characters and famous ones - King Arthur and Macbeth, Napoleon and Queen Victoria, right up to Stalin and Gorbachev - and discover how faulty memory can be, and how much we can glean from these lost empires. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind.

This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from listeners of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.

©2011 Norman Davies (P)2021 Tantor

Great History Lesson in Rise and Fall of societies

Loves this informative book! Difficult to find these histories. I especially enjoyed the information on old Prussia. It’s difficult to find histories about Germany that don’t focus on the Third Reich! Fascinating reading or listening

Fascinating!!

This meaty historic tome discusses the existence of places that I never knew and would probably never know except for this book. It's pretty academic, and it's easy to get lost as a history buff/enthusiast. The discussion of the several states of Burgundy was particularly tough to digest. However, it's worth it! Who gives voice to the lost peoples of Europe? Norman Davies does.

Where else are you going to go for this?

Wonderful subject and as thoroughly researched as you'd expect from Davies while still being accessible to layman. Some of his 'Kingdoms' were a bit of a stretch, Galicia for instance, and he just glances over well tread topics like Byzantium but on the measure it was a delightful listen.

Revealing but long!

The book is excellent in its depth and span, with color that fills in the modern world around us. But perhaps it could have shouldered on a bit quicker so as to make the whole somewhat briefer. This is probably most noticeable in the audiobook where skimming is harder to accomplish. Otherwise wonderful tales and accounting of kingdoms and countries lost in the amalgamation of our modern world.

Fine

It was good and informative and gave me a glimpse into histories that are impossible to find in accessible histories that aren't inadequate internet searches. I'm very much over English and French history. I've heard of this author before and this is my first book of his. It's dripping with pretension, reading quotes out in whatever foreign language it was in originally. Spoiler alert, turns out they didn't speak modern English at all in Medieval Europe, so prepare to sit through a lot of Latin and prepare to try and re-gather what the hell he was talking about after said Latin is thrown at your ears. Also, in the number 3 Burgundy chapter, thank you Norm, I never would have guessed that having an advanced college degree is better than an internet search. wish I would have thought of that before I bought this book.