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Summary: Finally - everything makes sense!
Review: A simple and enjoyable book that fills in the cracks from various history and art appreciation classes. Within a couple of hours, readers can have a good, basic grasp of the most important "who" and "whats" of European history - but particularly the "whys". I repeatedly found myself saying, "Oh, now I get it! So that's what the Renaissance (or the "Dark Ages" or whatever) is and why the art and architecture they created looks as it does." Truly a must read for both first-timers and seasoned travellers who just want to brush up on some of the facts and trends. Absolutely required for anyone travelling to Italy.
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Summary: Engrossing!
Review: As a first-time traveler to Italy, it was important to me to find information that to make this trip even more meaningful. I found it in this book. Wish I had this as my textbook for both European History and Humanities. This book allowed me to fully comprehend, appreciate and wonder at the significance of the architectural, engineering, cultural and art contributions of Europe to the world. Even my sister who is a seasoned traveler to Europe found this book thoroughly educational as well as entertaining. BRAVO! I will go to Europe again next year, and will take Rick's book on the best Europe has to offer. Thank you.
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Summary: Make your European trip a more cultural one!
Review: Europe 101 give you the basics about European art history and explains how the Europe of yesteryear connects with the art, buildings, and museums you're seeing today.
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Summary: I thought it humorous, interesting, and helpful!
Review: I felt the book was well written. Mr. Steves is humerous and light in his writing. I fould the book quite interesting, and an excellent down and dirty beginers guide to the arts. Very helpful indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad History, Good Art
Review: I found the discussions and descriptions of art very useful. Gives a nice overview of schools, major works, and how they tie together. The historical discussion is often abominable. Other readers have noted many of the errors, omissions, and most notably, biases in the book. The most egregious, however, is the section on "Europe Since 1945." If the goal of the book is to explain history and how it shaped present-day Europe, then the whitewashed presentation of the Soviet Union in this section of the book does a tremendous disservice. I would think that a reader who relied on this book would be utterly baffled by the still-ongoing struggle to unify West and East Germany, the perilous state of the Communist Party in France, Italy, and elsewhere. In addition, much of the economic, military, and even environmental policies of the second half of the 20th Century were driven by the fear of Communism. By presenting only the "noble, but failed" experiment interpretation of Communism, the book makes it impossible to understand the entire second-half of the 20th century in Europe. Example: The authors stress the differences between East and West Berlin, but appear to believe that West Berlin prospered only because of tax breaks and subsidized air fares. That's probably why all those people died trying to get over the Berlin Wall--to get those subsidized air tickets. Notably, there is no mention of the Berlin airlift, the fact that West Berlin was an island in a sea of East German Communism, or any other explanation for why people thought West Berlin was a questionable place to live. Example: On page 247, they state, "While America was left deeply in debt, the Soviet Union collapsed (as it would have anyway, given time)." Well, how long is "given time"? Should we have waited 10 years, 20 years, 50 years? How many more thousands or millions of people should have been sent to the Gulag so that we could have avoided the horrors of deficit spending? Sure, Hitler would have collapsed too--given time. Does that mean we shouldn't have been willing to fight Hitler? Notably, there is no mention of the Soviet Gulags anywhere in the book, just sneering references to political leaders lobbing "evil empire" charges back and forth. The final pages of the book include a testimonial by Steves as to his conversion to socialism after traveling the world. It is not clear whether this is the source of his desire to whitewash the history of Communism, but if so, then he should get an unbiased editor to help him write a more truthful and accurate history. I give this book 2 stars: 4 stars for the art, negative 2 stars for the history, which makes 2 stars overall. One can only hope that a new edition will be forthcoming that will clean up the mess of history that is made in this edition.
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Summary: Entertaining and a great way to prep for European Vacation
Review: I was very impressed by this book. It was well organized as it wove basic history into a discussion of major works of art and major tourist sights. It was interesting to learn how art evolved over hundreds of years, and how it changed as Europe changed. I particularly appreciated how the book did not assume a great deal of familiarity with the subject matter, yet never talked down to the reader. Most college-educated readers will find it to be just right. I wish I had read this book before my very first trip to Europe. I expect my next trip will be much more meaningful now that I will be able to put everything in context.
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Summary: What a great book!
Review: I wish my history classes in school started out by reading this book -- the overall picture of European history is much clearer when you aren't spending weeks covering one small period of history. This was a really fun read, fast, interesting and informative. Every time I read it I found some new revelation. And - granted I started with a very weak background in art - I now know quite a bit about art history! I'm already appreciating the classic artists far more, now that I understand the why & how of things.
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Summary: Rick is the man!
Review: If you are going to Europe and you want to get the most of your experience on a budget, Rick will help. The owners of hostels and other businesses, that he mentions, actually know him and speak very highly of him! All of his suggestions were realistic, fun, and extremely economical. LADIES listen to his packing advice:)
Rating:
Summary: Rick is the man!
Review: If you are going to Europe and you want to get the most of your experience on a budget, Rick will help. The owners of hostels and other businesses, that he mentions, actually know him and speak very highly of him! All of his suggestions were realistic, fun, and extremely economical. LADIES listen to his packing advice:)
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Summary: added dimension to your european vacation
Review: If you forget your european history from college (or just wasn't paying attention in class), this book really helps bring your european destination to life. I think the difference between reading this book and then going on vacation versus going on vacation without the book is like looking at someone's photo album filled with people you've heard stories about or shared experiences with or looking at an album full of people you don't know and don't care about. I highly recommend reading it.
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