Reviews for The Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century

The average rating for The Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-30 00:00:00 SHAY WILLIAMS I thought this was a tremendously well-written historical journey through the tragic history of Europe in the 20th Century by an eminent historian. This is not a heavy historical account - instead it is suffused with clarity, wisdom, and insight. It is also a book you look forward to reading, as if you are listening to a vastly knowledgeable, erudite, yet friendly historical guide. It does take a commitment of time and intellectual effort but is well worth it. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the unfortunate combination of circumstances in 20th C Europe that led to the largest human slaughter in both World Wars, as well as how the continent finally learned to live in peace during the second half of the century. The differences between Eastern and Western European development are set forth in illuminating detail, as is the gradual and inevitable disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe. Reading this book will increase the reader's understanding of the many factors - political and economic - that play into today's European economic crisis, although, as this books was written almost at the end of the 20th C (in 1998) the economic crisis that began in 2008 was still 10 years away.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-11 00:00:00 Richard Slater Dark Continent is not an easy read, but it is a good one with numerous insights to the time between 1919 and the 1990s. Mazower describes the rise of Hitler amid a Europe fascinated by nationality and race and tired of democracy and capitalism. He offers no apologies for the Nazi movement, but describes a European context alive with racism and fear that makes Hitler an extreme example and not an otherworldly demonic force. The chapters on the haphazard operations of the Nazi conquerors and the slow creation of the Eastern block during the Cold War add the horror of alternative histories to the real horrors he relays. He recounts forced migration after the war (12 million Germans expelled from Eastern Europe), ethnic cleansing that combining with Nazi horrors left Eastern European countries far more ethnically homogenous than before the conflict. In both Western and Eastern Europe a drive for consumer goods in the 60s and 70s replaced heroic post-war rebuilding efforts. He is not fond of Thatcher or that postive about the EU, but is happy that post-war Europe has settled peacefully (even complacently) into its smaller world role. Great examples, thoughtful and contrary arguments, incredibly enlightening.