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sarah_dietrich's review against another edition
4.0
Ian Kershaw's To Hell and Back is an excellent high-level overview of WWI and WWII history. Kershaw covers the lead-up to WWI, the war itself, post-war turmoil & the lead-up to WWII, WWII itself and the restructure of Europe after WWII, including the beginning of the cold war. This is obviously a huge amount of content to cover in a 500-page volume, so Kershaw takes a high-level view & uses broad strokes, while honing in on the pertinent details. At times the broadness was unsettling, e.g. the battle of the Somme was covered in half a page, which felt wrong. This is a good thing! Kershaw's ruthless editing has allowed him to pack a lot into one book, letting him focus on long-term international trends & root causes of catastrophes. Reading this filled in lots of little gaps in my knowledge of European history, which was much appreciated. One niggle I had is that some data could have been better represented in a graph (e.g. what % of people voted for socialist parties across various countries) rather than sprinkled trough paragraphs. A rewarding read.
bub_9's review against another edition
4.0
+ Chronological structure suits this tumultuous, fast-moving period very well.
+ Chapter on religion and culture is really wonderful and the kind of thing that sets a truly insightful work of history apart from a merely dutiful one.
+/- Very comprehensive in its coverage though it does sometimes feel like it skims over them because it's doing so out of a sense of obligation.
+/- My notes say "a little wrong on British history" but who knows what I was referring to.
+/- Remains a political, economic, social, and cultural history rather than a military one.
- I know this is a history of Europe, but I think it's a little unimaginative in circumscribing its focus so narrowly. A place can be understood in relation to other places, too.
- The main flaw is that this often feels superficial and lacking in explanatory power or even narrative depth, which makes it sound like a textbook at times. For example, I found it marvelously insightful to note that pre-war Czech democracy was successful. Kershaw, however, does not even attempt to explain why.
+ Chapter on religion and culture is really wonderful and the kind of thing that sets a truly insightful work of history apart from a merely dutiful one.
+/- Very comprehensive in its coverage though it does sometimes feel like it skims over them because it's doing so out of a sense of obligation.
+/- My notes say "a little wrong on British history" but who knows what I was referring to.
+/- Remains a political, economic, social, and cultural history rather than a military one.
- I know this is a history of Europe, but I think it's a little unimaginative in circumscribing its focus so narrowly. A place can be understood in relation to other places, too.
- The main flaw is that this often feels superficial and lacking in explanatory power or even narrative depth, which makes it sound like a textbook at times. For example, I found it marvelously insightful to note that pre-war Czech democracy was successful. Kershaw, however, does not even attempt to explain why.
felit's review against another edition
5.0
作为目前中译本的《企鹅欧洲史》收官之作，这本书无疑是个压轴大戏。作者在叙述一战二战的时候并没有将过多的笔墨放在战争过程上，而是将大部分力气放在了前因后果以及边缘的影响，比如意识形态、党政、文化与艺术、边疆的变迁、组织的立废等等。这样的好处就是读者不会卡在一长串地名、人名中间而不能切身感受到两战发生的逻辑，而历史的逻辑在我看来是从任何一部史书中能学到最重要的东西。《企鹅欧洲史》的中译本自此也就告一段落了，不知道已经写好的第九本什么时候会被翻译，而第四本，也是我最喜欢的文艺复兴时期估计要到2021年才能写完，有译本出来可能也是2022年了。总体来说这套书还是有挑战性的，并不是通俗历史读物。但是从另一个角度来讲，读完必定也是比那种一睹为快的读物要学到更多的东西。我很开心在过去的将近两个月的时间内马不停地刷完了这套书。问起欧洲史，我会推荐给任何人，但是一定要做好下苦功的准备，而不是蜻蜓点水的愉快阅读体验能带过的。
seventhswan's review
3.0
Does exactly what it says on the tin, honestly - this book is a detailed and dense account of European history and can't be faulted for the quality or quantity of the research. Took me a long time to get through, not because it wasn't interesting, but because of how much detail was packed in and how much of that detail was unpleasant to hear about.
Now I feel petty for rating a book 3* for doing exactly what it set out to do, but I just didn't get much from it for the amount of words.
Now I feel petty for rating a book 3* for doing exactly what it set out to do, but I just didn't get much from it for the amount of words.
nienkethepanda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Beoordeling:
3.75 uit 5 sterren
Recensie:
‘De afdaling in de hel’ is een non-fictief boek dat gaat over Europa in de periode van 1914 tot en met 1949. In deze periode hebben de Eerste Wereldoorlog, Tweede Wereldoorlog en de Koude Oorlog plaatsgevonden.
Ik vond dit boek heel erg interessant. Van jongs af aan ben ik erg geïnteresseerd geweest in de oorlogsperiode van Europa in de 20e eeuw en ik heb daar veel informatie over gezocht – zowel via non-fictieve als via fictieve boeken, films en series. Daarnaast heb ik mij op de middelbare school kunnen verdiepen in het onderwerp ‘het Nederlands verzet’ – wat mij erg dicht aan het hart gaat, aangezien mijn familie daar een erg grote rol in heeft gespeeld – en heb ik op de universiteit verschillende vakken gevolgd over deze oorlogsperiode en literatuur van de oorlogsperioden. Toen ik dit boek voorbij zag komen bij Uitgeverij Rainbow wist ik daarom meteen dat ik deze moest lezen.
Ik ken de auteur door artikelen die ik voor een vak op de universiteit heb moeten lezen en was toen al meteen geïnteresseerd in zijn denkwijze en specialisatie. Hoewel hij erg academisch kan schrijven – de reden dat ik dit boek tot twee keer toe heb weggelegd – maakt Kershaw ontzettend interessante punten en bekijkt hij gebeurtenissen vanuit een ander perspectief dan ‘westers’, wat tot op heden weinig gebeurt. In Nederland worden de geschiedenislessen allemaal gegeven vanuit een westers oogpunt – op zich logisch, aangezien we in de westerse wereld leven – maar wel jammer. Er is zo veel meer te vertellen dan alleen de (af en toe wat oppervlakkige) verhalen die circuleren en dat heeft Kershaw in dit boek ontzettend goed gedaan.
Minder grote onderwerpen worden besproken en ook de visie van bijvoorbeeld de USSR of een deel van Azië wordt in acht genomen bij het behandelen van de stof. Ik vond het heel erg leuk om dit te lezen, omdat ik echt het gevoel heb gehad dat ik veel heb geleerd van dit boek.
Wat wel een aandachtspuntje is voordat je begint met lezen is het taalgebruik. Aangezien het boek is geschreven door een academicus en ook feitelijke informatie bevat, zal het je niet per se verbazen dat het ook academisch taalgebruik bevat. Als je je niet goed kan concentreren of taal uberhaupt moeilijk vindt, denk dan twee keer na voor je dit boek oppakt. Het voorwoord was qua taalgebruik – vind ik – het meest complex en daarna wordt het taalgebruik eigenlijk steeds minder complex, maar het is geen makkelijke kost, niet qua taalgebruik en ook niet qua inhoud. Neem de tijd voor dit boek en lees steeds kleinere stukken dan alles in één keer, want het is echt veel om te verwerken en over na te denken.
mark_lm's review
3.0
Described as a history of Europe from 1914 to 1949, this is actually a political and economic history of the two world wars in Europe; other aspects of European history are not discussed independently. Military details of the wars are not present. The various human actors are mentioned only as necessary, so Hitler's (of whom the author is a famous biographer) adult political activities are mentioned, but his various colleagues are mostly ignored. There is excellent and enlightening description of Lord Halifax, Neville Chamberlain and Hitler regarding meetings about the Sudetenland, but Churchill, for example, is not discussed in any detail. Consequently, the work is anecdote poor. The first eight chapters of the book are sequential. The book reads like it was well-outlined and is an excellent reference with interesting statistics. I liked the discussion of the economics of the 1920s by country; some myths are dispelled. The book was recommended to me by the author Lewis Weinstein after his initial exposure to Kershaw's analysis of the Spanish civil war. I have to admit that I find the Spanish civil war so confusing that I'm not sure I was enlightened much. The later chapters include interesting discussions of the relationship between the major Christian religions and the Nazis, country by country, the relationship between various famous intellectuals and the Nazis (including, for example, Arthur Koestler, Ezra Pound and Martin Heidegger), interesting statistics about the approximate number of deaths among all of the displaced people after the war, country by country, and interesting statistics about how each country dealt with collaborators and Nazi functionaries after the war. There are many other useful things here. I look forward to the second volume and I will let pass the author's absurd comment that Proust's epic novel was extraordinary "not least for its length".
nelsta's review
4.0
It's difficult to learn about either world war in detail without coming to the inevitable conclusion that the Second World War was essentially a continuation of the first. I've read a lot about both wars and the opportunity to learn about both wars in the context of a single book was too good an opportunity to pass up. Ian Kershaw is a great historian, too, so the fact that he authored this volume is the cherry on top. "To Hell and Back" is so perfectly titled that I cannot fathom any other title being used in its stead.
This history was very good, but it lost me in some places. Maybe it is because I've read so much about this period, but the sections that covered the actual wars felt lackluster. His focus was clearly on the consequences of the wars for the various areas of Europe, and I appreciated that. But I had hoped for personal quotes or anecdotes to make those sections "pop." I think explaining the wars and their aftermath in numbers might have helped as well.
The sections that surrounded the wars were great, however. I learned a lot about the effects of the Great Depression in Europe and the beginning of the Cold War. These often get skipped in history lessons, so it was rewarding to get a bird's-eye view into those years. While Kershaw obviously tried hard to be even-handed in his approach, I felt like southern Europe and Scandinavia were largely overlooked. West, central, and eastern Europe were all given appropriate coverage, though.
"To Hell and Back" is part of Penguin's history of Europe. It is preceded by "The Pursuit of Power" by Richard Evans and followed by "The Global Age" by Ian Kershaw. Someday I'd like to read every volume. I've already read two of the three I own (there are a total of eight). It would probably be more rewarding to read them in chronological order, but so far I've approached it like a smorgasbord: I pick out the books that sound interesting and leave the rest on the plate.
If you're interested in European history and you want to get a more in-depth look at it than what is offered by a single-volume history, I would recommend this book to you. If you're more interested in the wars from a myopic perspective, buy Max Hastings' "Inferno," or a similar history. I think "To Hell and Back" offered some really compelling context to the two world wars and the Cold War that is missing from other books, but it often felt a bit dry. Still worth my time and money, but best read as part of the Penguin series.
This history was very good, but it lost me in some places. Maybe it is because I've read so much about this period, but the sections that covered the actual wars felt lackluster. His focus was clearly on the consequences of the wars for the various areas of Europe, and I appreciated that. But I had hoped for personal quotes or anecdotes to make those sections "pop." I think explaining the wars and their aftermath in numbers might have helped as well.
The sections that surrounded the wars were great, however. I learned a lot about the effects of the Great Depression in Europe and the beginning of the Cold War. These often get skipped in history lessons, so it was rewarding to get a bird's-eye view into those years. While Kershaw obviously tried hard to be even-handed in his approach, I felt like southern Europe and Scandinavia were largely overlooked. West, central, and eastern Europe were all given appropriate coverage, though.
"To Hell and Back" is part of Penguin's history of Europe. It is preceded by "The Pursuit of Power" by Richard Evans and followed by "The Global Age" by Ian Kershaw. Someday I'd like to read every volume. I've already read two of the three I own (there are a total of eight). It would probably be more rewarding to read them in chronological order, but so far I've approached it like a smorgasbord: I pick out the books that sound interesting and leave the rest on the plate.
If you're interested in European history and you want to get a more in-depth look at it than what is offered by a single-volume history, I would recommend this book to you. If you're more interested in the wars from a myopic perspective, buy Max Hastings' "Inferno," or a similar history. I think "To Hell and Back" offered some really compelling context to the two world wars and the Cold War that is missing from other books, but it often felt a bit dry. Still worth my time and money, but best read as part of the Penguin series.