James Hawes

The bestselling story of Europe's most admired and feared country, from Julius Caesar to Angela Merkel

The perception of modern Germany as a final outpost of liberal democratic ideals is placed in a historical context, and addressed as a point on a trajectory beginning with Julius Caesar's invasion in 58 BC, in this concise, politically-charged history of Germany, which situates the extremes of the German political experience throughout ancient and recent history in relation to the broader climate.

The Shortest History of Germany

Florian

Isabella Agostino

I’m no historian but Hawes seemed to show reasonable evidence for quite reasonable “takes”…the only problem was the editing. So many typos :/

I still really enjoyed this! A quick read with a lot of graphical aid. Makes me want to investigate specifics of German history, so I’d say that’s a win! 

But again. The typos. Hence my middle-of-the-road rating.

Laura Mauler

Clearly written, easy to follow, enjoyable to read. My one complaint is that the maps were nearly illegible because the font was minuscule and only supposedly-different shades of grey were used.

Quite an interesting read that approaches historical decisions more from a refreshing perspective of trade-offs and compromises. Unfortunately, due to its focus on the cultural and historical divide between areas east and west of the Elbe, it neglects a lot of German history not directly bordering this area, especially in the Austrian-Hungarian realm. This leads to some of the conclusions in this book to be frankly wrong in my opinion. Still a great book and almost a love letter to French-German friendship in the end. Might be especially interesting for people from France.

Donald

What a funny little book. Hawes' thesis, which he returns to again and again, is that all of Germany's problems are caused by Prussia and Protestants, so he frames all of German history as East vs. West. The lack of subtlety is kind of refreshing. Every historian has an angle, and he doesn't make you figure out his. How many other histories of Germany are so dismissive of Bismarck?

There's not much cultural or economic history here, mostly just political/military, but that's to be expected in a book so short.

I wish there were a book like this but just about the Franks.

Louisa

JAMES. HAWES

In the internationally acclaimed Shortest History of Germany, James Hawes showed that the whole sweep of a national story can be captured in a short book packed with maps and graphics, throwing striking new light on the present day. Now he does the same for his own country. From the Roman invasion through the Britons, Anglo-Saxons and Danes, via the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-French Empire and the Reformation, through the Civil War, Empire and the wars of the twentieth century, and up to the question-filled present, England emerges in a strange, new light. The world's most successful colonial culture is often seen as a uniquely stable Island Kingdom. A gallop through its story shows that it is, in fact, a place shot through with ancient fault lines, locked into European history and overlaid for the past thousand years with that most English of factors, a class system like nowhere else on Earth. With the Empire gone, Brexit looming and the break-up of the United Kingdom itself a real possibility, there's never been a time like this to understand the real history of England.

The Shortest History of England

𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮

Ricky Burgess

2,000 years of history in one riveting afternoon A country both admired and feared, Germany has been the epicenter of world events time and again: the Reformation, both World Wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall. It did not emerge as a modern nation until 1871—yet today, Germany is the world’s fourth-largest economy and a standard-bearer of liberal democracy. “There’s no point studying the past unless it sheds some light on the present,” writes James Hawes in this brilliantly concise history that has already captivated hundreds of thousands of readers. “It is time, now more than ever, for us all to understand the real history of Germany.”

The Shortest History of Germany

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