Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe (original 2011; edition 2012)

Norman Davies já nos tinha entusiasmado com obras como “Europe at war”, “Europe: a history” e a muito interessante “God’s playground: a History of Poland”.
Em 2011 publicou este “Vanished Kingdoms – The history of half-forgotten Europe” uma visão caleidoscópica de estados que ocupam apenas breves linhas nos tomos de história da Europa ou dos quais é apenas apresentada uma visão restrita.
Os estados analisados nesta obra são de vários tipos: alguns com duração de vários séculos, outros com duração de apenas breves anos antes de serem engolidos pelos vizinhos mais poderosos.
Alguns são nossos conhecidos como o Reino Visigótico de Tolosa (418 – 507), os reinos de Burgundia (411 – 1795) , o Reino de Aragão (1137 – 1714) ou o Eire.
Outros são mais obscuros e desconhecidos como Alt Clud – o Reino da Pedra (sec. V – sec. XII), a Etrúria (1801 – 1814), a Sabaudia – o Reino que Humberto construiu (1033 – 1946) ou Rosenau (1826 – 1918).
Especialmente apaixonantes são as vidas dos estados do leste da Europa, estados devorados e regurgitados várias vezes ao longo de conflitos, estados com povos com uma consciência nacional que durante anos parece adormecida para renascer poderosa em certas épocas.
Espantosa é a história da Lituânia, a dos seus reis estrangeiros contratados e a sua fusão com o Reino da Polónia para se tornar um dos poderosos estados da zona.
Dos bélicos vizinhos da Lituânia encontra-mos a história da Borussia – a terra aquosa dos Prusai, aniquilados pelos seus conquistadores; a Irmandade dos Cavaleiros Teutónicos da Virgem Maria.
Lê-mos também sobre Tsernagora – o Reino da Montanha Negra, no Montenegro, com a sua breve existência de 1910 a 1918 ou a ainda mais breve existência de um dia de Rusy – A República de 1 dia.
Da Alemanha de hoje vem-nos o Reino da Galicia – O Reino dos nus e dos esfomeados (1773 – 1918).
Norman Davies é um historiador e um escritor dos pormenores que levam aos grandes panoramas históricos. São mais de 800 páginas de escrita elegante que nos leva ao mais profundo da vida destes efémeros estados que analisa.
Nós, portugueses, que vivemos com a carga pesada e estabilizada de séculos de existência e de história, temos, por vezes, dificuldades em compreender a vida e a mentalidade destes povos que passaram tantas vezes de mão em mão, que um dia tinham uma nacionalidade para no dia seguinte terem outra. Poucas obras nos dão esta visão de como os estados, as sociedades e as culturas são efémeros, nascendo e morrendo ao longo dos anos. Nada é eterno nesta manta de retalhos da história da Humanidade.
A bibliografia é abundante e com indicação de sítios na Internet onde mais informação pode ser obtida.
Quando olho para os escaparates dos livros de história das nossas livrarias como sinto a falta das traduções de obras grandes como este “Vanished Kingdoms – the history of half-forgotten Europe”

http://umlivrodia.blogspot.pt/2013/04/vanished-kingdoms-history-of-half.html ( )

A rather interesting, albeit cluttered, set of historical essays on states and nations which no longer exist, from the kingdoms of Spain to Alt Clud/Strathclyde in Scotland, to the USSR.

The memory of every thing is overwhelmed in time, says Marcus Aurelius, three centuries before his empire passed. Why did these old states crumble - wars, internal strife, warring ethnicites, imperial ambitions? Perhaps. Some states, like the Republic of Carpatho-Ruthenia, survived for but a day, swallowed by the ambitions of Germany and Hungary. Some endured for centuries - Lithuania was once the largest empire in Europe. Prussia was the catalyst behind modern Germany. Some endure despite everything - Estonia clung to its identity through centuries of Russian domination. Some leave behind traces in other nations - the German state of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha left behind the current British ruling family.

Of course decline is not always death, but possibly rebirth - Ataturk rebuilt Turkey from Ottoman ruins. Italy escaped monarchism and Fascism, and somehow endured Napoleon and Berlusconi alike.

It is easy to forget that states are not immutable and eternal entities. Internal ethnicities and other such conflicts still pervade the post-colonial statelets of Africa, or the Middle East's own blood feuds. Even the Chinese titan still struggles to mollify or suppress the Tibetans or the Uighurs.

Much to learn from this. ( )

Norman Davies has hit upon an interesting idea and addresses a frequently overlooked area of European history but somehow he seemed never quite to reach out and grasp the reader's undivided attention.
His basic premise is that there have been many nations that have featured prominently, if fleetingly, at various stages of European history, but have subsequently vanished from the public perception. Among the more engaging chapters that Professor Davies offers are Tolosa (home of the Visigoths in what is now south west France), Burgundia (of which several markedly different iterations have emerged at different times), and these demonstrate his comprehensive research. However, i found that these chapters were in the minority, and the completion of this book almost became a demonstration of Zeno's Arrow principle whereby I would first have to complete half of the remaining pages, and then half of the next remainder and so forth.
Still i managed it somehow, and while I suppose I am a wiser and better-informed person as a consequence, I feel a need to read something a bit more readily rewarding. ( )

Norman Davies is one of my favourite writers of European history, as he has ways of making connections between different countries and events and individuals that lead the reader to a richer understanding of that continent. In Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, he describes 15 nation-states from the past, ranging from a Visigoth kingdom in the 5th Century to Estonia and Ireland (Eire) in the 20th Century. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the interactions, and inter-dependencies, among, especially, the Baltic region and Eastern Europe (which is well-represented with about half of the countries described), and particularly we learn about how the "larger" powers of any given time tended to give the needs of the populations of the smaller nations scant attention, even when those nations were allies of the larger ones. Each chapter is divided into three parts: a look at the modern region under discussion, a much longer delve into the history of the place, and a final summation of treatments and futures for the area (he's especially melancholy about the survival of the United Kingdom in the third part of the Eire chapter, considering that once Scotland leaves the Union - which he believes it is likely to do - the rest of the remaining countries of the Kingdom will break away from England too). I find his style of writing to be very vivid and at the same time very clear; he footnotes everything meticulously, like the scholar he is, although his footnotes are of the more boring variety (citations of sources; no more than a handful of interesting tidbits of informational asides) so unless you're a scholar too, it's not necessary to check the footnotes obsessively. And I like the fact that in this book he's looking at parts of Europe that might be very well-known (France, Scotland, Spain) to Western readers, and at the less-known Eastern regions too, in ways that allow us to see the development of that continent over centuries in a very different way than is usually presented in history books. I think interest in historical matters is a very individual taste; but if you have that interest, particularly in the European realm, this is a really informative and interesting book to peruse, though you might want to take it in chunks rather than all in one go. Recommended! ( )

Good, but some chapters very hard to get through. ( )