Dark Continent has ratings and 90 reviews. Nikos said: Εκπληκτικό βιβλίο ιστορίας. Όλη η ιστορία της Ευρώπης του 20ου αιώνα απλά και κατανοητά από. Mazower (Inside Hitler’s Greece) shapes his well-written history of Europe’s 20th century as a struggle among liberal democracy, communism and fascism. “A useful, important book that reminds us, at the right time, how hard [European unity] has been, and how much care must be taken to avoid the terrible.
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What then, if anything went wrong? It turned into a sort of mushy trifle made of recycled bits of stale Guardian op-eds. From inside the book. The author places himself in opposition to the comfortable “whig history” xontinent that Europe naturally chose a peaceful and democratic reaction to the 20th century’s horrors, and that things have daro improving since. I could have read nothing better to come to terms with Riveting up to and including World War Two; after that a much more ordinary history, and its epilogue on Europe today — in — reads sadly now.
As such, he gives particular attention to models that competed with it, fascism and communism, and looks into what made them so appealing to Europeans. In my opinion, the book supports that narrative quite well rather than discrediting it. Nearing mazowrr conclusion, Mazower notes of the decade of the 1 s that ‘in general eastern Europe, and therefore Europe as a whole, daro a far more stable place than at any time earlier in the century’ p.
Leftist perspective, scholarly, not comprehensive but didn’t set out to be. Maybe I’d prefer a more personal, human narrative. These are, however, minor peculiarities, and Dark Continent is overall a masterly work of historical enquiry.
The chronological run of Mazower’s twentieth century – from to therefore bears comparison with Eric Hobsbawm’s recent Age of Extremes: Well written – giving you perspectives from the separate countries who became willingly or not “players” in WWII.
A lot to grasp and study here. Other editions – View all Dark Continent: I took from the book that its a good thing the 20th century is over in Europe what with all the violence and war and allcontindnt that Nazism, Communism, and Fascism were not just “flashes in the pan”. Within Mazower’s ‘shortish’ century, the balance of coverage strongly favours the early over the later twentieth century.
Nov 02, Wessel rated it really liked it. Everyone should read this book.
Dark Continent by Mark Mazower | : Books
Europeans accept democracy because they no longer believe in politics. When I have time to upload my quotes to my notes page, you’ll have the whole book almost in outline form since I marked so many passages.
But still it remained unread for years until I realised it’s a recommended textbook for one of the courses in my university department. Excellent interpretation of 20th Century Europe. Published March 14th by Vintage first published Mar 22, Gordon Howard rated it liked it. It’s not so much factual though it is loaded with facts continennt “causal”–why things happened the way they did, how those things caused other things, etc.
May 22, Meg added it. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. His focus on the failed attempts at liberal democracy between the wars, and Hitler’s surprisingly long-lasting attempts at setting up a European system is invaluable.
Thanks for telling us about the problem. We are also terribly wrong to assume that there was anything self-destructive about the new European order as it emerged in the late s: A broad overview of 20th century European history, written from a skeptical left-wing perspective – while Mazower is more skeptical of the right than the left he really skewers Thatcherismhe doesn’t paper over the failures on either side of the political spectrum, of which there have been MANY, in Europe.
Even so, the central emphasis on the pivotal importance of the whole decade followingdescribed mazoaer ‘the century’s watershed’ p. The differences between Eastern and Western European development are set forth in illuminating detail, as is mazowwer gradual and inevitable disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe. Is Europe any ‘darker’ than the other four continents over the twentieth century?
Jun 15, Joanna rated it it was amazing Shelves: Just as Mazower ends his account on a beguilingly upbeat note for a volume with so downbeat a title, so this review must close on an admiring and congratulatory note after what may seem a catalogue of complaints and niggles.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in modern European history. I bought this for a dollar from the cheap rack outside the secondhand bookshop on campus, the source of so much of my reading material.
The Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century
He is the author of the prizewinning Inside Hitler’s Greece: It’ll be going to the charity shop when I’ve finished my course. The book’s epilogue alone is a terrifyingly accurate and explanatory summary of what went wrong with the EU project. Mazower’s geopolitical coverage of the European continent is remarkably wide-ranging, reaching to countries which are often neglected in general surveys but without sacrificing necessary concentration on the major international players.
Unflinching, intelligent, Dark Continent provides a provocative vision of Europ’s past, present, and future-and confirms Mark Mazower as a historian of valuable gifts. I would recommend it to anyone inte I thought this was a tremendously well-written historical journey through the tragic history of Europe in the 20th Century by an eminent historian.
Nov 25, Alan Gerstle rated it really liked it.
Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century
He Mark Mazower is a historian conrinent writer, specializing in modern Greece, twentieth-century Europe, and international history. It took me a long time to get through this but it was worth it. Mazower does not examine European colonialism in any detail. Here is a history not of inevitable victories and forward marches, dadk of dak squeaks and unexpected twists, where townships boast a bronze of Mussolini on horseback one moment, only to melt it down and recast it as a pair of noble partisans the next.
I thought this was a tremendously well-written historical journey through the tragic history of Europe in the 20th Century by an eminent historian. It is for contiennt reason that we find both high levels of support for democracy in cross-national opinion polls and high rates of political apathy. Riveting up to and including World War Two; after that a much more ordinary history, and its epilogue on Europe today — in — reads sadly now.
While strong on ‘low culture’ and prolific in his provision mazoqer contemporary quotations illustrating the mentalites of changing European society, Mazower is weak on the ‘high’ or ‘classic’ culture of literature, music and art.
To offer a searing indictment of the Jewish Holocaust is as emotionally shocking as it is historically necessary but Mazower shows commendable restraint and exemplary objectivity: Some excellent information to begin to answer the perennial question, how did it all fall apart in civilized Europe?