Book rec!
Perhaps it is a bit early to start calling something "one of the best books I’ve read this year", but I’m going to take a chance and do it anyway. For Christmas I got the wonderful In Europe - travels through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak, and it is nothing short of a page turner. An 832 page thick pageturner that is.
Mak, a Dutch journalist, spent years travelling through Europe pondering the question of what is Europe and does Europe have a common history. Or as he says himself:
Do we Europeans have a common history? Of course, everyone can rattle their way down the list: Roman Empire, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, 1914, 1945, 1989. But then one need only look at the enormous differences in the way that history has been experienced by individual Europeans: the older Polish truck driver I spoke to, who had been forced four times in his life to learn a new language; the German couple, bombed out of their home and then endlessly driven from place to place throughout Eastern Europe; the Basque family that fell apart one Christmas Evening arguing about the Spanish Civil War, and never spoke to each other again; the serene satisfaction of the Dutch, the Danes and the Swedes, who have usually avoided catching the full brunt of History. Put a group of Russians, Germans, Britons, Czechs and Spaniards at one table and have them recite their family histories: they are worlds unto themselves. Yet, even so, it is all Europe.
The history of the twentieth century, after all, was not a play performed before their eyes, but a major or minor part of their - and our - own lives. "We are part of this century. This century is part of us", Eric Hobsbawm wrote at the outset of his magisterial history of the twentieth century. To him, for example, 30 January 1933 was not only the day Hitler became chancellor, but also the wintry afternoon in Berlin when a fifteen-year-old boy walked home from school with his sister and, somewhere along the way, saw a newspaper billboard. "I still see it before me, as in a dream."
There are several things I love about this book. The writing is combination of essays, travel logs and historical musings. One of Mak’s strengths is his combination of oral history and on the spot interviews with well known historical facts. It all comes together and makes for gripping reading, and makes even the most famous years - say like 1939-1945 - appear new and riveting.
One of the things I loved most about the book was how it is organised by geographical location rather than timeline. So the chapter 1917-24 is divided into the sections of Doorn, Stockholm, Helsinki, Petrograd and Riga. And while Mak always keeps the long lines of history in sight he chooses to view history from these, and other, select locations. That makes for a very personal and extremely interesting way of reading history, and shows how different parts of the continent
Another favourite part of mine is Mak’s pondering on where Europe actually end and what is this European Identity anyway.
For if anything serves as the true hallmark of European civilisation it is diversity, and not a single identity [...] There is a Frisian folktale about a young man whose father sent him into the world with an oar over his shoulder, and who was only allowed to stop roaming when he came to a land where people would ask him: "What is that strange stick you’ve got there?". During my travels, I applied the same methodology with regards to the question of where Europe stops. Soon I noticed that, in day-to-day life, the problem is not all that complicated: people decide for themselves where they belong, and they make no bones about it. Whenever there was talk of holidays 'in Europe', the quality of 'European clothing' or family members 'in Europe', I knew one thing for certain: I had crossed the shadowy limits of Europe.
I think the reason I love this particular bit so is that what he says is so true about Norway as well. People here do refer going to trips to say Germany as 'going to Europe' and even the news will sometimes talk about 'in Europe today' as opposed to 'in the rest of Europe today'. It is a small difference to be sure, but I feel still in a way vital.
If I were to level any critique at Mak it would be that even though he mentions them, he doesn’t focus that much with these "fringes" of Europe. Instead his focus is very much on central Europe and especially what he calls the Great War of 1914-1945 [sic!]. But despite that the book is absolutely wonderful and highly, highly recommended.
Mak, a Dutch journalist, spent years travelling through Europe pondering the question of what is Europe and does Europe have a common history. Or as he says himself:
Do we Europeans have a common history? Of course, everyone can rattle their way down the list: Roman Empire, Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, 1914, 1945, 1989. But then one need only look at the enormous differences in the way that history has been experienced by individual Europeans: the older Polish truck driver I spoke to, who had been forced four times in his life to learn a new language; the German couple, bombed out of their home and then endlessly driven from place to place throughout Eastern Europe; the Basque family that fell apart one Christmas Evening arguing about the Spanish Civil War, and never spoke to each other again; the serene satisfaction of the Dutch, the Danes and the Swedes, who have usually avoided catching the full brunt of History. Put a group of Russians, Germans, Britons, Czechs and Spaniards at one table and have them recite their family histories: they are worlds unto themselves. Yet, even so, it is all Europe.
The history of the twentieth century, after all, was not a play performed before their eyes, but a major or minor part of their - and our - own lives. "We are part of this century. This century is part of us", Eric Hobsbawm wrote at the outset of his magisterial history of the twentieth century. To him, for example, 30 January 1933 was not only the day Hitler became chancellor, but also the wintry afternoon in Berlin when a fifteen-year-old boy walked home from school with his sister and, somewhere along the way, saw a newspaper billboard. "I still see it before me, as in a dream."
There are several things I love about this book. The writing is combination of essays, travel logs and historical musings. One of Mak’s strengths is his combination of oral history and on the spot interviews with well known historical facts. It all comes together and makes for gripping reading, and makes even the most famous years - say like 1939-1945 - appear new and riveting.
One of the things I loved most about the book was how it is organised by geographical location rather than timeline. So the chapter 1917-24 is divided into the sections of Doorn, Stockholm, Helsinki, Petrograd and Riga. And while Mak always keeps the long lines of history in sight he chooses to view history from these, and other, select locations. That makes for a very personal and extremely interesting way of reading history, and shows how different parts of the continent
Another favourite part of mine is Mak’s pondering on where Europe actually end and what is this European Identity anyway.
For if anything serves as the true hallmark of European civilisation it is diversity, and not a single identity [...] There is a Frisian folktale about a young man whose father sent him into the world with an oar over his shoulder, and who was only allowed to stop roaming when he came to a land where people would ask him: "What is that strange stick you’ve got there?". During my travels, I applied the same methodology with regards to the question of where Europe stops. Soon I noticed that, in day-to-day life, the problem is not all that complicated: people decide for themselves where they belong, and they make no bones about it. Whenever there was talk of holidays 'in Europe', the quality of 'European clothing' or family members 'in Europe', I knew one thing for certain: I had crossed the shadowy limits of Europe.
I think the reason I love this particular bit so is that what he says is so true about Norway as well. People here do refer going to trips to say Germany as 'going to Europe' and even the news will sometimes talk about 'in Europe today' as opposed to 'in the rest of Europe today'. It is a small difference to be sure, but I feel still in a way vital.
If I were to level any critique at Mak it would be that even though he mentions them, he doesn’t focus that much with these "fringes" of Europe. Instead his focus is very much on central Europe and especially what he calls the Great War of 1914-1945 [sic!]. But despite that the book is absolutely wonderful and highly, highly recommended.