A History in Fragments: Europe in the Twentieth Century - Hardcover

Vinen, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306810638 ISBN 13: 9780306810633

Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc, 2001

Synopsis

The problem with the history of twentieth-century Europe is that we all think we know it. The great stories of the century--the two world wars, the rise and fall of Nazism and Communism--seem self-evident in their importance. But behind the politics and the ideologies lies another history: the history of forces that shaped the lives of individual Europeans...and the lives of men and women around the world. (Americans need only think of the way that the history of Europe has shaped the flow of immigrants to the U.S. and thereby altered our nation's history.)Richard Vinen contends that there is no single history that encompasses the experience of the century, but rather a multiplicity of different, interlocking histories--stories not only of politics and military movements, but also of culture, religion, sex, and demographics, related here with an unmatched eye for the telling detail and spiced with memorable anecdotes. As the Sunday Telegraph put it: "Vinen moves effortlessly from social and economic issues to politics, from ideology to military history. . . . The writing is lively, the enthusiasm infectious, and the gift for bold, epigrammatic summary genuinely impressive." A canvas encompassing both the broad and the particular, this is a major work of history--and history writing at its best.

About this title

Review:

"Dark continent", "the age of extremes", "Europe divided"--these are just some of the descriptive labels that historians have attached to the late and unlamented 20th century. And why not? One hundred years of European history dominated by war, genocide, unemployment and totalitarianism hardly deserve better epitaphs. But as Richard Vinen perceptively and provocatively suggests in his deft and wry survey, it is partly a matter of perspective. The world wars only took up 10 per cent of the century, inter-war Europe was as violent as anything that came later and, since 1945, economic growth, political consensus, social mobility and the re-integration of Europe have meant Europeans leave the 20th century a much better place than they found it in 1900. Vinen, a specialist in French history and one of an exciting younger generation of modern European historians, has written an intelligent and stylish book, which will upset most received wisdom on the subject. The book has a "French" feel--there is more on demography and sex, culture and religion, than on politics and ideology, and it is spiced with amusing anecdotes, stories and a stunning interlude covering photography. For an engaging argument about the recent European past this is the place to start. --Miles Taylor

Review:

Fascinating and immensely readable...often sums up key moments in soundbite phrases that imprint themselves beautifully on the memory. (GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD)

Beautifully written, and can be confidently recommended to anyone seeking to make sense of our recent history. (DAILY TELEGRAPH)

A master of telling fact and illuminating insight, Vinen somehow manages to be both opinionated and objective. (Andrew Roberts)

I admired [A HISTORY IN FRAGMENTS] very much indeed. It struck me as a tour de force, as impressive in its collation of little-known facts as in its presentation of fresh and always intelligent interpretation. (Anthony Howard)

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0306810638
• ISBN 13: 9780306810633
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 640