Middle Kingdoms

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

The dramatic history of Europe's shape-shifting centre, from the author of The Habsburgs

Central Europe is not just a space on a map but also a region of shared experience - of mutual borrowings, impositions and misapprehensions. From the Roman Empire onwards, it has been the target of invasion from the east. In the Middle Ages, Central Europeans cast their eastern foes as 'the dogmen'. They would later become the Turks, Swedes, Russians and Soviets, all of whom pulled the region apart and remade it according to their own vision.

Competition yielded repeated cultural effervescences. This was the first home of the High Renaissance outside Italy, the cradle of the Reformation, the starting point of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the symphony and modern nationalism. It was a permanent battleground too for religious and political ideas.

This new history embraces the whole of Central Europe, including the German lands as well as Ukraine and Switzerland. The story of Europe's Middle Kingdoms is a reminder of Central Europe's precariousness, of its creativity and turbulence, and of the common cultural trends that make these lands so distinctive.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780141996271
Published: May 2024

Number of pages: 640
Width: 129 mm
Height: 198 mm
Depth: 27 mm

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd