Some time ago, in connection with a different book, I wrote a review that essentially began: “Once in a while, just once in a while, one comes across a book so impressive, so erudite, and so informative that it leaves the reader in awe.” for its achievement and fully rewarded for the experience of reading it.” I did not expect to find another book in the near future to which that description would also apply. I’ve done just that, and my life is immeasurably richer as a result.
The title, Europe since Napoleon, communicates what the book is about. This is not a story from the United States, Asia, China, South America or Africa. Europe is the focus, but the vision is not myopic in any sense. During the period in question, history, of course, documents that some European powers were imperial powers, claiming ownership and rule of colonies all over the world, indeed, on every continent. There was also the detail of two World Wars, which have been given that title because the conflict was almost global in scale. Hence Europe Since Napoleon addresses many aspects of history, politics, and economics that relate to the global interests of European nations, and as such, this book, at least in this reader’s opinion, becomes more a Eurocentric view of world history. rather than a closer discussion of a specific continent. And it must also be added that any Eurocentrism arises almost out of focus, and not from any form of bias or sense of superiority.
However, there is a problem with the title of the book. Europe since Napoleon implies that it could start at the end of the French imperial era, but Europe since Napoleon begins by looking at the circumstances and events that led to Napoleon’s assumption of power. We begin, therefore, with a discussion of pre-revolutionary France and the revolution itself, for it was from these events that the opportunity arose for Napoleon’s assumption of power.
The Napoleonic wars, peace, reform, revolution, socialism, work, the economy, Russian expansion, nationalism, the creation of Italy and Germany, the Franco-Prussian war and the Paris Commune have passed and we still half of the two centuries of coverage of the book remain to be completed. Of course, the Berlin Conference follows, the partition of Africa, the taking over of the rest of the world to turn it into European advantage zones, the Great War, another revolution, boom, depression, strike, major war, atomic bombs, the Curtain of Steel, the suggestion of international cooperation, the rise of science, the nuclear age and the molecular age.
Of course, Europe since Napoleon, like any work of synthesis, cannot even address the claim to be comprehensive. But in his book, David Thomson regularly illustrates how the big issues of the day redraw the map, forge new alliances, create opportunities and transform people’s lives. The author wrote over 400,000 words in almost 1,000 pages and at the end provides a comprehensive bibliography of works that he has undoubtedly read to provide greater depth on most of the topics covered in the book.
But the real strength of Europe since Napoleon is not its coverage, nor its depiction of the events it enumerates, but its narrative. Throughout David Thompson resists the temptation to simply list facts, opting instead for a fluid narrative style that, it must be said, assumes a modicum of prior knowledge. But what if the reader gains from this apparently stylistic plot is a rather brilliant contextualization, a synthesis, and therefore an understanding. This is a thousand page history book that is simply a joy to read, from page one to page 946, to be precise, not counting the appendices.
And, if the above weren’t praise enough, the author’s concluding remarks, written in the 1960s, are ostensibly predictions of where the human race may go in the coming decades and are nothing short of eye-opening. David Thompson not only takes a broader view of history, but also demonstrates a true intellectual vision that is impressive in its scope and exciting in its optimism. Reading this vision sixty years later, one can only wonder, how did this happen on Earth? How did we end up here on Earth? And, after reading this book, the one thing that history has repeatedly taught us is that we can catalogue, describe, and understand, but also that we must not predict, and we must not take anything for granted. History is a guide, but it never repeats itself, never brings us back to the familiar. That was how it happened. What a magnificent book!
