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schopflin's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
I really struggled with this book. The style is at the same time high handed and imperialistic, as Western travel writing always used to be, and meandering and hard to penetrate. In many places it's reminiscent of the obscure, referential style of the Psychogeographer Ian Sinclair. After a while I realised the real problem is that it is marketed as a history of the Baltics and is in fact a history of the Baltic German aristocracy, for whom the author seems to have a worshipful passion. Consequently, there's no mention of Lithuania, which may disappoint some people, and very little about the lives of ordinary people. However I did learn many things from it and he can certainly evoke a place.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Classism and Genocide
Minor: Deportation
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