Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 432 pages
- Published by: For Dummies February 4, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0764570609
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764570605
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.3 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
Product Review
"Lang has produced a comprehensive, concise, fascinating accountof the main events that have helped shaped modern history" (The Times Educational Supplement, June 2006) "well worth reading, handy as a reference book." (
The Teacher, July 2006)
Book Description
A fun, informative guide to Europe’s past and present.
The history of Europe is rich, complex, vibrant, and at times violent; it has influenced many countries throughout the world and has itself been influenced by many countries. In the light-hearted
European History For Dummies, historian Sean Lang explores the countries, conflicts, people, institutions, disasters, and triumphs that have helped shape modern-day Europe, packing in tons of facts alongside the fun. Chapters range from "Celts without Kilts" and "What a Way to Run a Republic!" to "I Capture Quite a Few Castles," "Reformation Ruckus," and "The War to End All Wars."
Sean Lang, the author of
British History For Dummies (0-7645-7021-8), is also a history lecturer, examiner, and writer.
Reader Reviews
I read this whole book through; every word. I liked it. It gave an interesting, readable overview of European History. European History covers a long period of time so topics get limited time. That's OK. If I saw a topic which was interesting I can research deeper with other books. Much of European history is bloodshed, bloodshed and more bloodshed. The topic which raised my eyebrow was the author's treatment of the Inquisition. I'll exagerate for fun: He made it seem as if people were tortured with wet noodles and feathers and the stories about horrific torture have been greatly exaggerated. He says, The stories of horrific acts of torture are popular misconceptions trumped up by a few 16th century Spanish Protestant writers with a grudge, writing under the pseudonym, "Montanus". Lang says, although torture was used; better results were had by questioning. Maybe it's because the Inqusition only gets about 5 small paragraphs in 382 page book that it seems like this whole inquistion thing has been down played. I've never heard anyone downplay the Inqusition unless they were Catholics or Christians defending their faith. Lang maybe right. It's just a new viewpoint for me. I'll have to research further. This is the only reason I gave this book a three***. This downplaying of the Inqusition seems wrong but I may come back and give it a Five*****. An historian shouldn't just pander to the masses and go along with popular misconceptions. They are supposed to educate us about the truth. I simply don't know if what he says about the Inquisition is true since he is the first that I've heard tone it down like this. He does admit that we could have down without it but... I'm reading Sam Harris' book End of Faith and the stories of torture make me ill and then I read Lang's book and it's like, no biggy, yea a few people were burned at the stake but hey. The contrast in reporting this event is so large. It could be that this is a Dummy book which makes light of everything which is fine...I enjoy that, but Lang does say that the stories of torture are exagerrated, so maybe Sam Harris' book is exaggerated to make us angry about religion???????????????????????
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