Book description
What is Europe? Firstly, of course, it is a continent made up of
countless disparate peoples, races and nations, and governed by
different ideas, philosophies, religions and attitudes. Nonetheless,
it has a common thread of history running through it, stitching the
lands and peoples of its past and present together into one fabric and
held together by the continent's great institutions, such as the
Church of Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the European Union, individual
monarchies, trade organisations and social movements. Europe, however,
is also an idea. From almost the beginning of time, men have harboured
aspirations to make this vast territory one. The Romans came close and
a few centuries later, the foundations for a great European state were
laid with the creation of the Holy Roman Empire - an empire different
to any other in that it enjoyed the approval of God, through the
Church in Rome. Napoleon overreached himself in attempting to create a
European-wide Empire - as did Adolf Hitler. Now, however, Europe is as
close as it ever has been to being one entity, yet we Europeans still
cling to our national independence. In A Short History of Europe
Gordon Kerr provides a coherent map of the jumbled history of Europe
and the European idea that has brought us to this point.
Gordon Kerr is a writer and editor who has worked in
bookselling, publishing, journalism and the wine trade. He is the
author of Timeline of Britain, Timeline: History of the World and
Timeline: Kings & Queens of Europe. His book Great British Losers
is published by Old Street and Dead Famous: The Final Hours of the
Notable and Notorious was published in 2009.
