The picture on the cover pretty much sums up the history of Europe in one glance. Never ending wars. This is a well presented brief and fast paced history of this great an eminently important continent. From the gathering of the tribes to the leaders who emerged to wage the wars and the power of the religious wielding the almighty it is all here and to the point.

As the story works its way to the present we are left with the question where to from here? Based on where we have come from the summation is when and where will the next conflict begin. Hopefully this is a wrong assessment, but following the adage history repeats itself that seems to be the answer. ( )

A good (and fast) overview of European history ( )

A "great men" overview of the history of Europe.

I presume the author is English, but in general he does well at keeping the appropriate focus on what has been deemed the "most relevant" stories of the development of Europe over time: quick prehistory primer, Greece, Rome, first migration period, Charlemagne and all that, "Holy Roman Empire," second migration and the Vikings, Britain vs. France/HRE vs. Pope, Habsburgs vs. everyone else, the French, and then the standard narratives since the Renaissance.

In general the narrative seems consistent with what I have seen in other textbooks, although I found one glaringly bad explanation: the author seems to have no understanding of the Christological controversies of the 5th century. Granted, anyone who claims to have complete understanding of those controversies is delusional; nevertheless, it cannot be said, as the author does, that it was all about the "Nestorians" vs. the "Orthodox," and the latter won. The lack of nuance actually hurts his arguments anyway: in truth, the whole thing was more smoke than fire, more political than anything else, with two groups going to extremes ("Nestorians" and "Monophysites"), and the "orthodox" trying to maintain some Biblical balance at Chalcedon (which, ironically, sounded more "Nestorian" than it did "Monophysite"). It wasn't just the Church of the East that broke away - so did the Syrian Orthodox and the Egyptian Orthodox (or Coptics); the latter groups were more than happy to welcome the Muslim invaders, since they ended up living under greater tolerance from them than the "orthodox" Byzantine emperor. In the book it's a minor point, and no one can be expected to have a full understanding of everything, but the way the Christological controversy was explained is a distortion of the historical accounts.

All such explorations are done with motivations, and the author's seems to involve the push and pull about what it means to be "European." He seems eager to understand the current politics surrounding the European Union in terms of historic parallels: British vacillation about being "in" or "out" of Europe, northern vs. southern Europe, the lingering effects of Lotharingia, etc. There's certainly some evidence for all of this, and it's interesting, but it leads the author right into the "history of the moment," which is always a dangerous thing to explain, since it's hard to know what the controlling narrative might be. That controlling narrative looked one way in 2003; quite another in 2010; even more so in 2015; and blown up ever since.

The author unapologetically tells the story according to the "great man" theory, so it's all about kings and wars and national boundary changes with a little bit of the arts, philosophy, etc. as it relates to historical developments. Caveat emptor.

A decent introduction to European history.

**--galley received as part of early review program ( )

Condensing the history of Europe into 400 pages means you can’t expect depth and detail. Simon Jenkins assumes this right at the beginning - this is a short history of Europe, and thus, aimed at readers who want to have an overview of how this continent evolved over time, mainly from a political point of view. It does so convincingly and elegantly, covering all the main events that shaped the fates of its countries and its peoples - and hopefully leaving readers interested in digging more deeply into specific topics, eras or geographies, into which other more focused books can go in much more detail.
All in all, this is a great read for anyone interested in gaining an overview of how today’s Europe came to be - and how much of what it is today still mimics what it has always been through the centuries. ( )

This book is just what the title says. It is a short (400 pages) history (from prehistory to Brexit) of Europe (from Ireland to the Urals). It will be very useful to those who want to know more about the history of the continent without embarking on a long-term reading program, and to those who have been most interested in one era or country, and want to see it in a wider context. It's an easy and enjoyable read, gracefully written and studded with interesting factlets. One key themes is the ambiguous relationship of Britain to the rest (?) of Europe; the author is English, and has some English views. Another is the remarkable bellicosity of European leaders over time, going to war again and again and again, often for without any convincing reason. ( )