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

Vinen, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316853747 ISBN 13: 9780316853743

Publisher: Little, Brown, 2000

Synopsis

The problem with the history of twentieth-century Europe is that everyone thinks they know it. The great stories of the century - the two world wars, the rise and fall of Nazism and communism, female emancipation - seem self-evidently important. But behind the grand narratives, the politics and the ideologies, lies another history: the history of forces that shaped the lives of individual Europeans.

That is the thrust of Richard Vinen's magisterial survey of this uniquely destructive and creative century. It argues that there is no single history that encompasses the experience of all Europeans, but rather a multiplicity of different, partially interlocking, histories. Some of these histories are told here in a book which seeks to root the generalisations of large-scale analysis in the concrete - and sometimes incongruous - details of individual lives. Challenging, informing and revealing, this is history writing at its finest.

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: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0316853747
• ISBN 13: 9780316853743
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 736