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Jan 18, 2011 · 1 Like a Tear in the Ocean (Wie eine Traene im Ozean) by Manes Sperber. 2 World in Trance by Leopold Schwarzschild. 3 The Accused (Hexensabbat) by Alex Weissberg-Cybulski. 4 The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. 5 Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler. Read. Tell me about your choices.
A possible good read for Germany specifically might be "The Third Reich Trilogy" by Richars J. Evans, especially the first two books "The Coming of the Third Reich" and "The Third Reich in Power" that cover the time of the German Empire through the outbreak of WWII.
- Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder
- Gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy
- To Hell and Back by Ian Kershaw
- The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
- Roller Coaster Europe by Ian Kershaw
- The Shortest History of Europe by John Hirst
- Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe by Norman Davies
- Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum
- In Europe: Travels Through The Twentieth Century by Geert Mak
- If This Is A Man by Primo Levi
Bloodlandslooks at the mass murders committed by the Soviets and Nazis in Eastern Europe, during World War II. If you’re unaware of just how bloody this theatre of war was, it’s estimated 14 million non-combatants were killed between 1933 and 1945. When the Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, not only did they invade the Soviet Uni...
The Gates of Europeis perhaps the most relevant book on the list considering the events of early 2022. It’s a look at the history of Ukraine, its future, and how it relates to the present. What we learn from Serhii Plokhy’s book is that what’s happening in Ukraine today, is a repeat of events that have happened time and time again throughout histor...
To Hell and Backlooks at the period from 1914 to 1949, one which saw Europe engulfed in wars that shook the continent to its foundations. Kershaw is a fantastic historian. While this great book is a broad look at that period, he does a fantastic job of telling the important stories that resulted in the two world wars that dominated the era. A glari...
The Silk Roadsis a fantastic book that looks at the world from the perspective of trade and economics. It takes you back over two thousand years to the present day to explain the rise and fall of various empires. It’s a big book, at over 600 pages, but it’s worth reading because you will learn a lot. As you might have gathered from the title of the...
Roller Coaster Europe, the second book on the list by Ian Kershaw, looks at the period of European history from 1949 to the present day. It charts how the continent came to terms with the atrocities of the Second World War and rebuilt a shattered and fractured Europe back up again fit for the modern world. This is a period of history that’s often o...
If you’re looking for a quick guide to European history, then John Hirst’s The Shortest History of Europeis the place to start. The book starts with a look at how European civilisation started and charts a course through the great events that shaped the continent’s history such as the Middle Ages, Thirty Years War and French Revolution. As well as ...
It’s easy to forget that the world we see today is only a snapshot of what it was previously. This is especially true in Europe, where countries and empires have risen, fallen and ceased to exist. This is why Vanished Kingdomsis a brilliant book to read. It brings to life those places that have been lost to time across Europe. While there are many ...
Anne Applebaum is one of the best historical and political writers today, and I could have chosen any one of her books to put here, but I felt Iron Curtainwas the most relevant. After the Second World War, the Iron Curtain that went up between Eastern and Western Europe defined the next 40 years until 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. During this tim...
In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century is a fascinating book by the Dutch reporter Geert Mak that was written in 1999 and looked at the history of Europe during the fast-closing century. The book is a kind of travelogue through places that shaped the history of the continent in the 1900s, for better and worse. Think Srebrenica, Dresden, C...
If This Is A Man is a harrowing of life in Auschwitz written by the Italian-Jewish author, Primo Levi. Levi was arrested in December 1943 and transported to Auschwitz in February 1944, where he remained until the camp was liberated. His story is remarkable and the words he uses to describe the horrors he witnessed are gripping. My trip to Auschwitz...
Sep 1, 2007 · A comprehensive and thoughtful historical analysis of the democracies of interwar Europe, Defending Democracy provides a unique perspective on the many lessons to... Read More Winner, Best Book on European Politics, 2005, European Politics and Society Section, American Political Science Association
By that time, too, Germany’s fragile postwar Weimar Republic was under growing threat of collapse. History of Europe - Interwar Years, WWI, WWII: Woodrow Wilson’s vision of a general association of nations took shape in the League of Nations, founded in 1920. Its basic constitution was the Covenant—Wilson’s word, chosen, as he said ...
avg rating 3.60 — 5 ratings — published. Want to Read. Rate this book. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. Books shelved as history-interwar: The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1...
avg rating 3.31 — 39 ratings — published 2009. Books shelved as interwar-year-europe: Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman by Jonathan Wright, Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Dea...
