Celebrated historian John Hirst draws from his own lectures to deliver this ultra-accessible master class on the making of modern Europe鈥攆rom Ancient Greece through World War II. Along the way, he covers a broad selection of topics that piece together European history鈥攆rom worldviews shaped by philosophy, religion, and science, to adaptations and groundbreaking inventions like the plow that encouraged civilization to advance at rapid rates, to wars that created new borders and nations. Identifying ten key themes, he shows how each unlocks a deeper understanding of the cycles of European history, and how they inform our continued struggle to secure our rights and find peace in our differences. In his nonlinear, wide-ranging, yet tightly knit and thrilling narrative, Hirst reveals European history in another light鈥攐ne that distills thousands of years of history down to its essentials. Ultimately, this singular history highlights the power shift from the crowns of absolute rulers to the weary hands of the working class, and how commoners held leaders accountable for wrongdoing by demanding their basic rights, and against all odds, forged the documents and beliefs to found constitutions and core societal values in modern Europe and across the rest of the world.
John Bradley Hirst, FASSA (9 July 1942 鈥� 3 February 2016) was an Australian historian and social commentator. He taught at La Trobe University from 1968 until his retirement in 2006, edited Historical Studies鈥擜ustralia's leading historical journal鈥攆rom 1977 to 1980, and also served on the boards of Film Australia and the National Museum of Australia. He has been described as an "historian, public intellectual, and active citizen". He wrote widely on Australian history and society, publishing two well-received books about colonial New South Wales. Hirst also frequently published opinion pieces in the media.
Great book for a very high-level overview of the history of Europe. Mostly focused on the Roman Empire and its aftermath, up until the Industrial Revolution.
Below are my reading notes.
# Chapter 1 Europe is a mix of people:
- the Greeks, who thought the world was simple, logical, and mathematical - the Christians, who thought the world was evil with only Jesus to save them - and the Germans, who thought waging war was the greatest
What happened when these groups came together?
At first the Christians were persecuted but in 313, Constantine gave the Christians protection and later made Christianity the only state religion. So _the Romans became christian_.
Then the christian religion changed as it grew. The Christians created a whole hierarchy of priests, bishops and archbishops鈥攃ulminating with the Pope in Rome. This hierarchy had its own courts and dungeons and collaborated with the civil secular power of the emperor. Thus, _the Christians became more and more Roman_.
The churches were on a path to catalog and systematize their knowledge and to that aim they hired the philosophers and thinkers of Rome and Greece. Therefore, _the Christian church became a custodian of Greek and Roman knowledge_.
When Rome fell, the cities shrank and the hamlets became fiefs and local rulers held the real power. The king did not have much power and was lucky if he could assemble an army. The _German warriors moved closer to the church and eventually became Christians_.
The Christian Church began revisiting the Greek and Roman texts and began writing a Christian literature that built upon these writings.
The year is 1400 and this situation is about to break down.
# Chapter 2 The Renaissance is often portrayed as the re-discovery of Greek and Roman thinking but actually it is not so. The Renaissance began as people _outside the Church_ began studying the old pagan ways of the Greeks and Romans.
Two movements began removing power from the Church: the Renaissance and the Reformation. The message of the Reformation was: _the Church is not Roman_.
The Reformation was trying to extirpate the Roman Church from the Roman empire, to get back a Church as it used to be, before the merge.
At the same time, the Renaissance thinkers were trying to extirpate the Greek and Roman knowledge from the Catholic Church.
The scientific revolution was another force that would try to remove the Christian influence on science and knowledge. Interestingly, the scientists of the 17th century would contradict their Greek predecessors while still using the Greek methodology of mathematics. Yes, the _classics were now proved wrong_.
Several movements began rising against the backdrop of the Renaissance. The Romantic movement is one that stated that _culture was in the art_ and in the passion of men and women: reason could not explain everything and certainly did not make life worth living.
Around this time also came the idea that peoples should govern themselves and each nation should have its own government. This is the era of nationalism.
# Chapter 3 After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe was invaded by three groups: the Muslims in southern Spain, the Normans from the north, and the Ottomans in Anatolia. Constantinople fell to these Ottomans in 1453.
The Europeans would eventually push back the Muslims in southern Spain. And they would incorporate Norman settlements into their own kingdoms.
# Chapter 4 As the Roman Empire began to expand, the governing of the state took a greater toll on the state finances. The empire increased taxes and forced shopkeepers to keep their prices the same鈥攖o fight inflation.
Richt estate owners refused to pay taxes and harboured peasants working on their land. Fiefs began to form and the legitimacy and power of the Roman Emperor faded.
# Chapter 5 Gunpowder helped the monarchs to defend themselves against their own people as artillery was expensive and useful to batter cities.
The European monarchs could justify the maintenance of an army because they fought with one another. However, in England, it was harder to justify an army and perhaps that helps explain the power of the parliament and the popular suspicion towards the rulers.
# Chapter 6 As the pope was afraid of a second wave of invasions by the Langobards, he turned to the ceasar in the Eastern Roman Empire but the caesar was busy fighting invaders. The pope then turned to the French king Pepin for help. The French king then successfully waged war against the barbarians and was then afraid that the pope would lay hands on land that was rightfully the king's. The king thus allowed the pope to keep only a small patch of territory around his living quarters. The state of the Vatican was born.
# Conclusion Is Europe special? Perhaps. Perhaps it was just faster.
In any case, it looks like various centers of power helped bring about change and revolutions that led to industrialization and progress. Other parts of the world, say China, were ruled by an omnipotent monarch and that probably slowed the pace of change.
but i can't help but be annoyed by the flippant Euro-centrism by Hirst. On Feminism: "it was because women had this degree of respect in European culture that feminism was fairly readily accepted. It is a different story in other cultures." What other cultures? By how much? Such casual condescension served no purpose other than to make the reader demand qualification, which this book does not provide.
When I marked "read" for this book, I only meant read in so far as it only took me about 20 pages to discover this book is biased and in some cases kind of offensive. I would read "Europe: A History" instead. It may be the longest history of Europe, but it's informative, well-written, and much less biased (and when biased mostly tends to be honest about it).
John Hirst has been called "Australia's most innovative and penetrating historian" and the first thing I have learned from reading this book is that whoever said that is bloody well RIGHT!!!
What a relief to be reading the SHORTEST history of Europe - and at around 140 pages,( plus 10 maps and 22 illustrations ),that is exactly what it is. What is MORE, he is putting IN what all those BIG HEAVY LENGTHY TOMES on European history LEAVE OUT!!!! It's the BEST thing on European History I have ever read and it will be with me as a secret key whenever I do read another one.
So am I going to put in the spoilers which just about EVERYBODY on 欧宝娱乐 never fails to do by revealing this book's Distilled Essences??? None of my reviews give away the plot, but they do try to get you to read the book nevertheless!!! So.........NO!!!!
As the Little Red Hen more or less said:"Read it yourself!!!"
A very good introduction for those who really do not know much about Europe as it gives you a quick overview of the main events that shaped Europe and its people. Their ethnic and cultural backgrounds, their languages, the political changes and the revolutions that made Europe what it is today. However, its was oversimplified at times and the author let his own opinions, which weren't always clever, get into his stories sometimes. Also, it mostly just focused on Britain, Germany, France, and sometimes Russia, which is totally understandable given their significance and the roles each of these countries played in shaping the Europe we know today but, still, there's more to Europe than these 3-4 countries and I just didn't appreciate how the rest of Europeans were ignored. I guess the author just needed this to be as short as possible but it just didn't feel like the history of ALL of Europe.
My favorite chapter is definitely the first one. The author did a great job explaining the 3 main factors that shaped Europe as we know it and how they intertwined despite their differences AND because of it.
Overall, it was a nice read and I would recommend it to anyone interested in knowing more about Europe in the fastest and simplest way which, after all, is exactly the reason why John Hirst wrote this book.
Antik Yunan'dan 2.dunya savasina kadar Avrupa nasil Avrupa oldu? Oldukca bilgilendirici bir kitap. Yorumsuz ve sade. Basitce anlatmis. Faydali bir kitap olmus.
A very biased and the most ridiculous book I've read regarding history. It is shocking me that this kind of books would be even published. This man described the knowledge and science as a European making? Like things like just happened, naming the kingdoms of the east as an extreme totalitarian regimes, and no matter what the European model was democratic and never have been barbaric or extreme as "those" of the east. Ignoring that science is based on different factors, one of them is COMMUNICATION. Trying to simplify such a complex of factors by referring to one and only factor, and excluding other that has and have participated in science, knowledge is no good. Referring to human development by referring to geometry and architecture and call it A PURE WORLD, this is absolutely absurd and non sense? Where this purity came from, how can you explain to us this purity, how did you analyzed this purity? His biblical argument as well, showing a very anextreme biased view and based on a racial factors within the geography of europe narratives. I wouldn't even give it a 1/3 of a star!!! 亘廿禺鬲氐丕乇: 賲丕 賰賱 賴匕丕 丕賱賴乇丕亍... 賵丕賱兀賰孬乇 廿爻鬲賮夭丕夭賸 賴賵 廿丨鬲賮丕亍 賯購乇丕亍 丕賱賱睾丞 丕賱毓乇亘賷丞 亘賴匕丕 丕賱賴乇丕亍 丕賱賲鬲丨賷夭 賵丕賱賲鬲賲丨賵乇 丨賵賱 匕丕鬲賴 賵賲購賳賰乇丕賸 亘賰賱 毓噩乇賮丞 賵毓賳 噩賴賱 賲鬲毓賲丿 兀賵 睾賷乇 賲鬲毓賲丿 亘兀賷 賲賳胤賯 兀賵 賮賱爻賮丞 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 兀賵 丨鬲賷 丕賱乇丐賷丞 丕賱賲賵囟賵毓賷丞 賱賱鬲丕乇賷禺! 兀賷毓賯賱 兀賳 賷毓鬲亘乇 兀賷 胤丕賱亘 賮賷 丕賱賲乇丨賱丞 丕賱鬲賲賴賷丿賷丞 丨鬲賷 賴匕丕 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 賰賲丿禺賱 賱賱鬲毓乇賷賮 亘鬲丕乇賷禺 兀賵乇亘丕貙 廿匕丕 氐丿賯賳丕 賴匕丕 賮賱丕 毓噩亘 廿匕丕賸 賮賷 廿賳鬲丕噩 賲噩鬲賲毓丕鬲 毓賳氐乇賷丞 匕丕鬲 乇丐賷丞 賲鬲胤乇賮丞 賵賲鬲丨賷夭丞 賱毓賳丕氐乇 賲孬賱 丕賱毓乇賯 賵丕賱丿賷賳.