In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century | 
 enlarge | Author: Geert Mak
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
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Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 46340
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 896
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 0307280578
Dewey Decimal Number: 940
EAN: 9780307280572
ASIN: 0307280578
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
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Product Description
From the First World War to the waning days of the Cold War, a poignant exploration on what it means to be European at the end of the twentieth-century.
Geert Mak crisscrosses Europe from Verdun to Berlin, Saint Petersburg to Srebrenica in search of evidence and witnesses of the last hundred years of Europe. Using his skills as an acclaimed journalist, Mak locates the smaller, personal stories within the epic arc of history-talking to a former ticket-taker at the gates of the Birkenau concentration camp or noting the neat rows of tiny shoes in the abandoned nursery school in the shadow of Chernobyl. His unique approach makes the reader an eyewitness to a half-forgotten past, full of unknown peculiarities, sudden insights and touching encounters. Sweeping in scale, but intimate in detail In Europe is a masterpiece.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Poetry in history July 11, 2008
Geert Mak's book is a masterpiece. It's not a complete and exhaustive account of the 20th Century in Europe, instead it reads in the form of a travelogue as Mak visits some of the significant places upon which events took place, for example Sarajevo and Berlin. It's not a dry and dusty recounting of facts, instead it's a warm and readable insight into some of the people and events which were so pivotal for the history of Europe. Somehow he is able to find vignettes of events which illustrate the whole, interviewing people who, although unnoticed players in history, have their own insight into the events and their own experiences of how things affected them.
What's outstanding about this book is the quality of the writing (and the translation too). Mak is able to distil complex events into fascinating pieces of writing and he regularly personalises situations that otherwise could seem too vague. I was particularly moved by the chapters on the First World War where he quoted various young men who were part of the fighting on both sides and showed that, for the individuals involved in the war, events were seen very differently from those in overall charge.
In this book Mak often quotes short phrases in German which aren't translated and could cause some trouble for those who don't speak German; however most other languages have some kind of translation where they occur.
This is a very big book and it's not something that you want to read through continuously. However I found myself dipping into it on a regular basis, 3-4 chapters at a time, and I always enjoyed it. There's a lot of history in Mak's book of which I was previously unaware, such as Lenin's return by train to Russia, and I was continually amazed that one man could have put the work together and could weave the threads of events into coherent wholes. There are few illustrations in this book (mainly maps showing his travels in each section of the book) but his wordsmith craft paints vivid enough pictures to make this book well worth the reading and a genuine triumph.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book Helen Hancox 2008
 A Parade of Miseries May 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good lord, how awful to have been a European in the 20th century! That, at least, is the impression I have come away with having just finished Geert Mak's "In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century." Just before the turn of the century, Mak set out across Europe, sending home reports from dozens of towns and cities across the continent. The result is part history, part travelogue (at a ratio of about 2:1 I'd say).
But what a slog it is! Mak's Europe is a never-ending succession of war, massacre, pogram, repression, rebellion, alienation and revolution. Fair enough, you think: the 20th century was the world's bloodiest, and the slaughter must be addressed. But it all becomes a bit repetitive and navel-gazing. Even after the bloody first half of the century is covered (which takes up nearly two-thirds of the book) and Europe's fortunes dramatically improved, Mak decides to focus on the darkest corners of the continent: there are reports from Franco's Spain, Belfast during the troubles, Chernobyl, Srebrenica. This is an unceasingly bleak picture: none of the light and life of Europe comes through here. We get no hint of the outpourings of culture, the scientific advances, the happy times -- Mak's Europe is all tragedy, no triumph.
Mak's writing is fine, though I think he's a better history writer than travel writer: his travel writing falls into the category of being a little too introspective and symbol-heavy for its own good. Mak constantly seems to be meeting people and seeing things that are just a little too poetic for them to be completely credible.
All in all a decent book, but one that I will not be reading again, and a little too monochromatic in its outlook for me to full-heartedly recommend to other people.
This book is unique. May 11, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I did not choose this book. It was presssed upon me by a very intelligent friend. "Well," I thought, "I'm not
sure that even an intelligent friend is worth trusting for an 800 page history of Europe in the twentieth century."
Oh, was I wrong. The book is a stupendous achievement. Truly, can one think of another book (in only 800
short pages) that is able to contain a complete century, and all the countries, of Europe? And he does it with
an artist's eye. Lord, how well this man can write. I reach out to you, to whoever has happened upon this
review, and urge you to buy this book. i read it through just as I would have a novel, and plan on re-reading
it straight through again. Take the plunge. You won't be sorry.
Gripping overview of the 20st century May 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Yes, I know. From any description, it sounds boring.
Yet, try to put it down, I dare you.
Fluent Broad Brush Treatment November 23, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is almost in the unputdownable category, with the additional pleasure of its capacity to be dived into at any chapter, or to be savoured chapter at a time. Mak's personal travels through the countries that now comprise Europe throughout 1999 bring to his research a somewhat mordant contemporary tone to his impressions. I can, from travels this year, certainly confirm the mood he paints of Istanbul, Chatting there with expat Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians and Romanians only spread the paint wider, not thinner. The book's historical aspect, much of it new to this reader, whatever arguments might be fussed over with the details, are unlikely to be challenged. Much of the regions have received their specific historical treatment by other authors, and Mak acknowledges his readings. But few writers have presented the broad picture with such verve.
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