Scan barcode
made_line_kalista's review against another edition
5.0
True to the testament on its cover, this book is surely to become a classic. It provides an astonishingly detailed picture of Europe during these tortuous years and sets up the understanding for the postwar years. What a contradiction this book presented me with: on the one hand being completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information contained within, while at the same time making me want much more detail. I now find myself paging through the bibliography to mark down the other books that I hope will expand upon the knowledge base this book gave me. One thing that I found especially valuable in this book is the sense of 'human-ness' it gave to history. When I learned about history in school, it was presented in such a definitive sense and there was no question that obviously history was headed one way or another. In addition, my school history tended to draw lines throughout time, i.e. there was war, then it was over, the end. But Kershaw stresses the confusion of the times, the after war history that was not a stark stop to violence but saw violence continue many years after world war two was over. He brings you into the minds of the people and skillfully sheds light on a population that was wrought with ideological flaws. It was a fascinating read.
finn_vibing's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, and War
sidney's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my, what an exhilarating and despairing experience!
This is literally the first scholorly book I've read that focuses on those two wars, and I have to say that Mr.Kershaw writes with a storyteller's flourish and a scholor's erudition. But hell, getting into all these austere numbers of those murdered during the wars was downright heartbreaking. I just couldn't fanthom that just eighty years ago such a staggering profusion of people-people who can feel pain and despair just like us-had to go through this actual hell on earth.
Lots of mistakes that the great powers had made do seem outrageous and improvident in retrospect, but who would know it back then? And that's how making mistakes benefit us-by learning from them and not making the same ones again.
This is literally the first scholorly book I've read that focuses on those two wars, and I have to say that Mr.Kershaw writes with a storyteller's flourish and a scholor's erudition. But hell, getting into all these austere numbers of those murdered during the wars was downright heartbreaking. I just couldn't fanthom that just eighty years ago such a staggering profusion of people-people who can feel pain and despair just like us-had to go through this actual hell on earth.
Lots of mistakes that the great powers had made do seem outrageous and improvident in retrospect, but who would know it back then? And that's how making mistakes benefit us-by learning from them and not making the same ones again.
jasonwpost's review against another edition
5.0
If it wasn't for the lack of footnotes (though this is a feature of the series generally), it would deserve to become the 'go to' text of the time. There is - unsurprisingly - a focus on Germany in this period. It is the driving force for the two wars, and its successes and failures determined the larger historical trends of the time.
Two events shape 1949, the half way point of this project for Kershaw: the testing of the first atomic bomb developed in the Soviet Union which unofficially starts the cold war, and the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany - symbolising the end of Germany's expansionist ambitions and the start of European integration.
Excited to read the second part of Kershaw's contribution to this project!
Two events shape 1949, the half way point of this project for Kershaw: the testing of the first atomic bomb developed in the Soviet Union which unofficially starts the cold war, and the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany - symbolising the end of Germany's expansionist ambitions and the start of European integration.
Excited to read the second part of Kershaw's contribution to this project!
jgn's review against another edition
5.0
I have been trying to switch all of my reading to digital, but while in London, and having visited the Imperial War Museum, I stopped in at Foyle's and Waterstone's . . . I still have that disease where if I visit a bookstore it's hard for me not to buy a book. Kershaw's new history of Europe during and between the wars beckoned to me.
This is a great history book for anyone who wants a "spine" for their understanding of Europe: Events, people, economics, culture. It is highly synthetic, merging many sources, but also has the author's sometimes sarcastic voice. It was a pretty fast read because there are no footnotes to lure the reader into the minutiae -- for this kind of history I'd say that is a good thing.
In a lot of ways this is old-fashioned history. In the war chapters, it's about strategy, battles, and movements of people. In the economics sections, it's mostly macro-economics with occasional dips into the way money was changing on the street.
My reading in history is biased to the United States, England, and France, and this book is great because while telling the main events of the big players, Kershaw will then amble through the other countries: Scandinavia, the Balkans, Slavic areas, and, importantly, make distinctions: For instance, I did not know about the many years of democracy in both Czechoslovakia and Finland. A critical place where Kershaw spends a fair amount of time is making distinctions between Fascism, Nazism, Totalitarianism, etc. This is where his prior work as an historian of Hitler helps.
In this book, the USA is a bit player (well, until we get to Lend-Lease and the Marshall Plan) which is a nice re-orientation for an American reader. On the other hand, he too-simply blames the Great Depression on Wall Street. The US contribution to D-Day is covered in about 1/2 page. But it makes sense, because of the interest in describing vast movements.
Recommended if your idea of "Europe" is just the Western players.
This is a great history book for anyone who wants a "spine" for their understanding of Europe: Events, people, economics, culture. It is highly synthetic, merging many sources, but also has the author's sometimes sarcastic voice. It was a pretty fast read because there are no footnotes to lure the reader into the minutiae -- for this kind of history I'd say that is a good thing.
In a lot of ways this is old-fashioned history. In the war chapters, it's about strategy, battles, and movements of people. In the economics sections, it's mostly macro-economics with occasional dips into the way money was changing on the street.
My reading in history is biased to the United States, England, and France, and this book is great because while telling the main events of the big players, Kershaw will then amble through the other countries: Scandinavia, the Balkans, Slavic areas, and, importantly, make distinctions: For instance, I did not know about the many years of democracy in both Czechoslovakia and Finland. A critical place where Kershaw spends a fair amount of time is making distinctions between Fascism, Nazism, Totalitarianism, etc. This is where his prior work as an historian of Hitler helps.
In this book, the USA is a bit player (well, until we get to Lend-Lease and the Marshall Plan) which is a nice re-orientation for an American reader. On the other hand, he too-simply blames the Great Depression on Wall Street. The US contribution to D-Day is covered in about 1/2 page. But it makes sense, because of the interest in describing vast movements.
Recommended if your idea of "Europe" is just the Western players.
mylogicisfuzzy's review against another edition
3.0
Bit of a shame, I found To Hell and Back a book of two halves. I thought it excellent up to 1940 and I thought the last chapter very good (the succinct summary of Marshall Plan, before going into more detail, particularly good and citable and the geopolitical argument for the Soviet buffer zone). While I wasn't looking for or expecting a military history, I found the section on ww2 and theatres of war too brief. Of course, there was a lot for Kershaw to cover, his arguments and analyses are overall really good but, some were getting a bit repetitive. I also found the section on the business of entertainment oddly placed - it dealt a lot with interwar years quite near the book's end and, it dealt with entertainers, especially film, familiar to many.
I would have been more interested in Kershaw's take on why was food rationing already introduced in Germany in the winter of 1941-42 when it controlled the resources of most of Europe by then. (He just mentions twice that there was food rationing from winter 1941-2) Military spending vs 'butter' during Hitler's rise to power was amply dealt with but it would have been good to continue, e.g. give some detail of how the Allies caught up other than briefly mentioning Lend-Lease and enormous human cost in the Soviet Union - this is what I mean by brief on ww2. Overy's Why The Allies Won is quoted in bibliography, I'd just have liked Kershaw's opinion.
I would have been more interested in Kershaw's take on why was food rationing already introduced in Germany in the winter of 1941-42 when it controlled the resources of most of Europe by then. (He just mentions twice that there was food rationing from winter 1941-2) Military spending vs 'butter' during Hitler's rise to power was amply dealt with but it would have been good to continue, e.g. give some detail of how the Allies caught up other than briefly mentioning Lend-Lease and enormous human cost in the Soviet Union - this is what I mean by brief on ww2. Overy's Why The Allies Won is quoted in bibliography, I'd just have liked Kershaw's opinion.
markk's review against another edition
4.0
I've always found historical series to be curious in a way. A series suggests a degree of homogenization: a number of books grouped together by a common theme or goal. In the case of the Penguin History of Europe series, the goal to to provide an overview of Western/European history from ancient times through the twentieth century. Most of the volumes have been published and for the most part they're excellent surveys of their eras and likely to remain the standard works on their periods for the next generation. Yet the volumes are not uniform, and the closer they come to present times the more narrow the period being covered, with the ancient world covered in a single volume, the thousand-year span of the Middle Ages in three, and the 167 years between 1648 and 1815 covered in just one volume.
Because of this, it is not surprising that Ian Kershaw was given an entire volume to cover the 20th century. What is interesting, though, is that at some point he concluded that to do the job properly it would require two volumes, and that Penguin assented. Thus, this is simply the first half of Kershaw's overview of the century passed, providing a level of detail unprecedented in the series. That it doesn't feel bloated or dragged out is in part due to Kershaw's ability to analyze the events of this 35-year span in a way that never exhausts the reader's attention. Clearly his many years of award-winning scholarship in the era are a factor here, as he brings all of the insights he gained over the course of his career to bear in explaining the broader developments of this period.
Yet Kershaw's background also defines some of his limitations: his opening chapters on the First World War are the weakest in the book, reflecting little of the fascinating insights provided recently by such authors as Christopher Clark and Adam Tooze -- this despite the fact that their recent books [b:The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914|18669169|The Sleepwalkers How Europe Went to War in 1914|Christopher Clark|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1384804367s/18669169.jpg|21905061] and [b:The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931|20821319|The Deluge The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931|Adam Tooze|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396672001s/20821319.jpg|40515450] are both listed in the bibliography. Once Kershaw moves into the interwar period, however, his narrative begins to shine. His focus is primarily on the political and economic developments of the time, seeking to explain (as the title indicates) how Europe descended into the hell of war and chaos and then clawed their way back. Yet he does not ignore the social and cultural changes that took place during this period, and his coverage of these areas give the reader the well-rounded narrative that such a series requires. It ends on what amounts to a cliffhanger, as readers will have to wait until the succeeding volume to discover whether Kershaw can maintain the high standards he has set with this volume when explaining the developments that followed.
Because of this, it is not surprising that Ian Kershaw was given an entire volume to cover the 20th century. What is interesting, though, is that at some point he concluded that to do the job properly it would require two volumes, and that Penguin assented. Thus, this is simply the first half of Kershaw's overview of the century passed, providing a level of detail unprecedented in the series. That it doesn't feel bloated or dragged out is in part due to Kershaw's ability to analyze the events of this 35-year span in a way that never exhausts the reader's attention. Clearly his many years of award-winning scholarship in the era are a factor here, as he brings all of the insights he gained over the course of his career to bear in explaining the broader developments of this period.
Yet Kershaw's background also defines some of his limitations: his opening chapters on the First World War are the weakest in the book, reflecting little of the fascinating insights provided recently by such authors as Christopher Clark and Adam Tooze -- this despite the fact that their recent books [b:The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914|18669169|The Sleepwalkers How Europe Went to War in 1914|Christopher Clark|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1384804367s/18669169.jpg|21905061] and [b:The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931|20821319|The Deluge The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931|Adam Tooze|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396672001s/20821319.jpg|40515450] are both listed in the bibliography. Once Kershaw moves into the interwar period, however, his narrative begins to shine. His focus is primarily on the political and economic developments of the time, seeking to explain (as the title indicates) how Europe descended into the hell of war and chaos and then clawed their way back. Yet he does not ignore the social and cultural changes that took place during this period, and his coverage of these areas give the reader the well-rounded narrative that such a series requires. It ends on what amounts to a cliffhanger, as readers will have to wait until the succeeding volume to discover whether Kershaw can maintain the high standards he has set with this volume when explaining the developments that followed.
More...