Book Reviews :Europe Since Napoleon by David Thomson

 Some time ago and in relation to a different book, I wrote a review that began with the gist, "Sometimes, at times, a book is so fascinating, so scholarly and so communicative that it amazes the reader with its accomplishments. And it's a reading experience." Fully rewarded by. " I did not expect to encounter another book in the near future where that description might also apply. I did just that, and as a result my life has become immensely rich.

The title, Europe as Napoleon, communicates what the book addresses. This is not the history of the United States, Asia, China, South America or Africa. Europe is the focus, but vision is by no means myopic. During the period in question, history must document that some European powers were imperialist powers, in fact claiming ownership and rule of colonies around the world on each continent. There were also details of the two world wars, which have been given this title because the conflict was global in scale. So since Europe has addressed many aspects of Napoleon's history, politics, and economy that relate to the global interests of European countries and, therefore, this book, at least according to this reader, has become a Eurocentric view of world history, rather than a narrow discussion of a particular continent. And it must be added that any Eurocentrism arises almost from focus, not from any kind of bias or feeling of superiority.

There is, of course, a problem with the title of the book. Europe as Napoleon implies that it may have started towards the end of the French Empire era, but Europe since Napoleon began by analyzing the circumstances and events that allowed Napoleon to take power. So we start talking about pre-revolutionary France and the revolution, because it was in these events that the opportunity for Napoleon to take power was created.

The Napoleonic War, peace, reform, revolution, socialism, labor, economics, Russian expansion, nationalism, the creation of Italy and Germany, the Franco-Prussian War, and the Paris Commune have all passed, and we are still halfway through. Two centuries of book coverage. Of course, following the Berlin Conference, the partition of Africa, the domination of the rest of the world to transform it into a region of European advantage, the Great War, another revolution, boom, despair, strike, the Great War, the atomic bomb, the Iron Curtain, the suggestion of international cooperation, the rise of science, nuclear Epoch and molecular epoch.

Of course, Europe, like Napoleon, cannot address the demand for comprehensive work. But in his book, David Thomson regularly describes how the big problems of the day have redesigned the map, created new alliances, created opportunities and changed people's lives. The author has written more than 400,000 words spanning over 1000 pages and at the end has provided a thorough bibliography of the work which he has undoubtedly read to give more depth to most of the topics covered in the book.

But the real power of Europe since Napoleon is not his coverage, or the description of the events listed, but his description. Throughout David Thompson resists the temptation to list only information, instead chooses a fluid, descriptive style that, it must be said, assumes a modest amount of prior knowledge. But if the reader benefits from this seemingly stylistic movement, it is the brilliant context, the synthesis, and the consequent understanding. It is a pleasure to read from the first page to the 946 pages, to be precise without counting the appendices.

And, if the aforesaid are not appreciated enough, the author's final observations, made in the 1960s, clearly predict where the human race may go in the following decades, and this is nothing less than a revelation. Not only does David Thompson have a great perspective on history, but he also demonstrates a truly intellectual perspective that is breathtaking and optimistic in its scope. After sixty years of reading this view, one can only ask, how on earth did it happen, how did we end up here? And, after reading this book, the thing that history has repeatedly taught us is that we can catalog, describe and understand, but we should not make predictions and we should not allow anything. History is a guide, but never repeats itself, never returns to our acquaintances. That's how it happened. What a wonderful book!