Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
From the bestselling author of Europe: A History comes a uniquely ambitious masterpiece that will thrill fans of lost civilizations
While Germany, Italy, France, and England dominate our conceptions of Europe, these modern states are relatively recent constructs. In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction, Norman Davies brings back to life the long-forgotten empire of Aragon, which once controlled the Western Mediterranean; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, once the largest country in Europe, and the Kingdom of the Rock, founded by ancient Britons when neither England nor Scotland existed. In the tradition of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Davies subverts our established view of the past and urges us to reconsider the impetus for the rise and fall of nations.
While Germany, Italy, France, and England dominate our conceptions of Europe, these modern states are relatively recent constructs. In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction, Norman Davies brings back to life the long-forgotten empire of Aragon, which once controlled the Western Mediterranean; the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, once the largest country in Europe, and the Kingdom of the Rock, founded by ancient Britons when neither England nor Scotland existed. In the tradition of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Davies subverts our established view of the past and urges us to reconsider the impetus for the rise and fall of nations.
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Community Reviews
Norman Davies is a fantastic historian. Fantastic seems a generic word for someone as uniquely well-studied and is known to haunt some of the most prestigious college campuses in the world. Institutions such as Wolfson College Oxford and Jagiellonian University--the oldest university in Poland--where he is the UNESCO Professor in history. Despite Davies' academic accolades a-plenty, his prose is still very accessible. Davies' writing escapes the historical desert trap where most books of this ilk crawl to their desiccation death station. This book is great in parts and is organized as such--as in a book club or a classroom could focus on a specific kingdom. Anyone curious about the rise and fall of little known and mysterious kingdoms such as the fabled 1000-year reign of the House of Savoy (1003-1946) will find an interesting and entertaining rendition of this Vanished Kingdom. Recommend.
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