Rating: 
Summary: a must read to get upto current events
Review: simply the best value. if there is a history book that you must have read and have on your bookshelf this is it. this is the only book that i found covers upto recent european history. it gives a look at the span of time and events, and culling details where already available. admirable work but by an undisputable expert. normally one would require a tremendous amount of time and energy to read such a voluminous book, but it was easy reading. there are movies as compelling, but all give only a slice of history. to accomplish this breadth with a history book is outstanding. makes even someone like me with very poor memory of dates and events, to begin to unravel the past a piece in readable sets of 20 to 30 pages at a time. buy it. support the writer in his not only well intentioned but skillfully staying true to history objective work. encourage the good work, so that it may be carried on by future historians.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Conside History of European Civilization
Review: Every serious reader can use a panoramic single-volume history of Europe and its civilization. Norman Davies' Europe: A History is absolutely sweeping in its scope, taking the reader from the Ice Age to the present day. This book is beautifully written and despite the enormous ground that it covers, it maintains a strong narrative drive. Norman Davies is erudite and incredibly well read and each page bristles with interesting facts and despite the necessity of compressing so much history into thirteen hundred pages, there is a surprising amount of detail. Like all good synthesizers, he has an eye for the telling anecdote, the little vignette that contributes to the narrative. Davies' work has hundreds of such asides and his work is full of triumph and pathos, irony and humor - as it is the story of man and Western Civilization. There are plenty of well-written sidebars that are short dissertations on historical figures, philosophical concepts, laws or wars, issues that may have distracted from the narrative, but that serve to illuminate the text. Overall, Europe: A History is an exceptional work of brevity and compression. While few of us will read it from cover to cover, it's of great use for those of us who want a single volume to refer to, to understand what an exceptional scholar feels is most important about historical events and epochs.
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Summary: General European History - not just WESTERN European History
Review: I like this book because it spans not only the usual Western European version of History, rather it encompases the breadth of experience, including Russia, Poland, and other nations in what is known as Central and Eastern Europe.
Of course it is broad, and quite general, however, if you're a History buff, or perhaps a budding one, this is a good starting point, and the references and maps and other charts are fodder to whet your appetite for sure.
Davies is unashamedly trying to readdress what he and many others see as the problem of History being written with a West European bias. Which has been the case for far too long. Central and Eastern Europe holds the key to unlock much of the history of why European history is as it is. It's been the hotbed of most of Europe's turmoil, battles, defeats, decimation, and [unbeknownst to many] the centre of a great deal of the worlds greatest art, literature, and culture, including film, for centuries.
Personally, I would recommend it to anyone, who knows very little about Europa, as the best place to start your education.
Rating: 
Summary: Slavophobic
Review: This book has proven to be one of my most valuable desk references. I wished I had bought the hardback, given the wear and tear on it over the 6 years I have had it. Davies has done a marvelous job of condensing a tremendous amount of history into one volume. He approaches it in a three-fold way. He provides a richly flowing narrative that covers the story of Europe much like an epic novel. He intersperses the narrative with an extensive series of "Capsules" that take in special events and interesting asides in the development of a European identity. Lastly, he provides a massive set of appendices that cover everything from royal lines to WWII death tolls. The narrative is divided into a set of 12 chapters that cover broad periods of time starting with the environment and prehistory of the contintnet to the Cold War era. Davies has a tremendous command of the events which shaped Europe. His strength lies in his understanding of Eastern Europe, and in particular Poland, expanding the breadth of the continent beyond its usual eastern borders. In fact one might say that Davies has made the case to rethink European history along Eastern European lines, which is the logical extension of his earlier two-volume history of Poland. He takes in Russian history, with special attention to its Slavic roots. He deals with the inevitable conflicts that arose and provides good summaries of the World Wars. He deals with the restoration of Western Europe and the demise of Eastern Europe following WWII along ideological lines, noting how one rose at the expense of the other. He chooses to end his narrative with the collapse of the Soviet Union, providing a short epilogue on his thoughts concerning the new allignments in Europe. The numerous capsules are a very interesting approach in dealing with cultural aspects of Europe. He offers an astonishing array of anecdotes in these capsules such as the origins of Dr. Faustas to the transcendental nature of the famous war song, Lili Marlene. Although he covers much of the cultural history of Europe in his narrative, it is in these capsules that one finds many fascinating aspects of this cultural history and how it has evolved over the century. The appendices cover a lot of ground, illustruating some of the iconography of Europe, providing extensive lists of everything from the Popes and Patriarchs of Rome to a selection of the works and authors banned by the Papal Index. He provides numerous maps and charts to help guide you through the rough and tumble history of Europe, and provides accurate death tolls of the World Wars. He also provides extensive book notes as well as an excellent index to help guide you in subsequent searches. This is probably the best one-volume history of Europe available today and one that will serve you will in gaining an understanding of this rich and varied continent. His rich prose makes it a pleasure to read and his excellent index allows for quick searches to look up key events. A book that will find its place with all your other desk references or by your armchair for a long and enjoyable read.
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