History of Eastern Europe

A Captivating Guide to a Shortened History of Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Moldova, Belarus, and Romania

By: Captivating History

Narrated by: Jay Herbert

Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

How much Eastern European history do you know?

The story of Eastern Europe is one of successes and failures, competing interests, and the rise and fall of states and empires. The ancient Greek and Roman empires knew the importance of Eastern Europe for trade and settlement. Later, during the Migration Period, also known as the “Barbarian Invasions", Eastern Europe became the stomping grounds for many people. The Visigoths, Huns, Slavs, and central Asian Turkic tribes like the Avars and Khazars all made their way into Eastern Europe.

With so many people moving in, the first states started to rise. Some of them would break apart as soon as they started, while others would form full-fledged empires. The medieval period would see some of the greatest empires of European history, like Kievan Rus, the Bulgarian Empire, Serbia, and the German Crusader states. By the early modern period, these great states would be replaced by Russia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Ottoman Empire.

In this audiobook, you will learn about:

• The Greek and Roman influence in Eastern Europe
• The Migration Period, a.k.a. the “Barbarian Invasions”
• Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire
• The Mongol invasions
• Christian Europe vs. the Ottoman Empire
• The fall of Constantinople
• The rise of Russia and its famous rulers, like Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great
• The path to World War I and World War II
• The Jewish experience in Eastern Europe
• The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc
• The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism
• The conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo
• The 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea

To learn more about Eastern Europe than you ever thought possible, add History of Eastern Europe to your cart today!

©2021 Captivating History (P)2021 Captivating History

history of eastern europe.

this book was really interesting. there was a lot of information in the book. I enjoyed learning about the 4 major powers in Europe.

The history in these books is amazing!

I loved the content in this book. It offered great information about a topic that I admit I was not too familiar with, even though I have studied Western European history for years.

My only complaint is I don't think the narrator's delivery and intonation fit this genre of books. I picture him narrating wildlife stories on Animal Planet or some kind of children's programming. He speaks in a sing-song manner and he mispronounces names that are well-known, though he should have access to sources to help him with pronunciation. I found myself getting distracted by how he was talking instead of listening to what he was saying.

Otherwise, this is a great book. I'm happy to have a resource where I can get information about Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, etc., and how each of these countries played significant roles in European history. It's a great addition to my library.

Terrible narrator

Narrator mispronounced cities, regions, and leader’s names. He even pronounced one name three different ways and none of them were correct. Content is good though.

Interesting times

Today so many people think ; oh you are from Germany or France. When the truth of the matter is your family is probably from all over Europe and Asia. Even with DNA testing, trying to track people through all of this history would be interesting to say the least. Every country, every people was caught up in the movements that occurred over hundreds if not thousands of years.

Informative, but some pronunciations are off

I’ve read five of these books, and I find them very informative and with the right level of detail. All of them, however, are peppered with strange pronunciations of common words. For example, rhe-TOR-ic instead of RHE-tor-ic and CRIM-ee-a instead of CRY-me-a. I’ll keep reading them, though. I like the variety of titles too.

Buckle up! This is going to interesting!

Wow. So interesting to read from the beginning of how things progressed and now I understand why recent events happened. There are some deep rooted factors that cause today’s events and these are covered in this audio book! The information flows to you in a very rapid fashion so I had to rewind a couple of times to listen to some parts a second time. There is some repetition of some of the events as the author discusses events from the perspectives of different groups, but this helped reinforce what I heard earlier.

I recommend this book as it is interesting and you’ll be surprised at some things such as that at obe time, Poland was actually one of four major powers in Europe (when it was a commonwealth between Poland and Lithuania).

long, but fascinating

filled with tons of information that many don't even think of. in fact, even when I study European history, Russia is usually the dominant factor when even thinking of the east. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so I was able to witness some of the history being made, through current events class in school, much of tv. Sadly, as the internet came about, many in Eastern Europe were starting to be able to share their experiences...but westerners weren't usually ready to listen. not until their own ways of life were threatened in the dawn of 21st century.

narrator Jay was much better in the 1st half of this book. however, he started to wane again with the latter half. keep working on those pronunciations! :-)

Embarrassing Pronounciation

This simple and quick history would be fine if the narrator didn’t butcher names of important figures and places throughout. Be ready for 2 mispronunciations…per sentence.

Great historical content abysmally narrated

Abundant and inconsistent mispronunciations. Over time I came to think that perhaps it was an artificial voice.

Sounds like...

Very annoying mispronunciations from reader, which are weird and deliberate from an English speaker with an otherwise good tone and pace.