He has gone through everything, he has gained all his wisdom, he has treasured,
See through the secrets of the story he brought back to an era before the Flood,
He traveled thousands of miles, and when he returned exhausted,
He carved all the hardships on the stele.
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
Ancient stone tablets, mysterious legends, distant civilizations...
Every piece of history has tens of millions of years to trace, there are endless stories to speculate, the British historian Norman Davis's "History of Europe" is a historical work written from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, it is based on "European History: Classical Era (Prehistory - 337 AD)", "European History: Imperial Age (c. 330-1493)" and "European History: The Age of Transition (c. 1450-1914)" three volumes of European history, from the prehistoric period to the First World War. It is presented in a complete way through the coordinate system of time and space in the form of a combination of traditional narrative style and close-up.
The first volume, History of Europe: The Classical Era (Prehistory – 337 AD), is like an entry point into our knowledge and understanding of Europe, allowing us to see what the geography, climatic environment, and civilizational conditions of classical Europe were present before the official appearance of "Europe", in the distant era when civilization began to sprout and develop rapidly, when Greece and Rome were in their heyday.
In addition to combining traditional narrative and close-up, Norman's "History of Europe" is not the same as most history books, in addition to combining traditional narrative and close-up, it also sets up a "knowledge window" part in each chapter, focusing on a representative and distinct theme of each key period, place or character, which is both the entry point of each chapter content and an independent small story, from the "window", to the part, to the panorama, under the dual framework of chronology and geography. The historical picture of the European continent slowly unfolds.
Norman Davis, a native of England, inevitably has some subjective biases in some historical views, but he is very sincere and frank in stating that "this book strives to overcome the prejudices of 'Eurocentrism' and 'Western civilization' in every period." But as a work of European history, its narrative cannot go beyond the borders of Europe itself", which is very rare in the history of Europe created by European authors.
If we only discuss the idea of "Europe" getting its name, its history is not very long, "Europe" was gradually replaced by the concept of "Christendom" in the 14th and 18th centuries, so the Christian faith can be said to be one of the most important features of European culture, Norman said very directly, "In every way, this concept is traditional." All conceptual variations, anti-traditional currents and whimsies related to the European theme must be taken as a criterion."
Although the concept of "Europe" is only a few hundred years old, the progress of European civilization can be traced back to a distant prehistoric period. Norman describes the history of this European continent, which is actually a "peninsula", by starting with the remarkable geomorphological features of plains, mountains, oceans, peninsulas, and islands, because "those 'arrogant empires in the world' continue to fall." But it is clear that plains and mountains, seas, peninsulas, and islands will last forever."
Of these topographical features, the "window of knowledge" given by Norman is clearly carefully and carefully measured, and in the case of Ukraine on the Great Plains of Europe, it has an unusual significance for Europe, it is the only way for the vast majority of Europeans to go to their homeland, and it is also the place that symbolizes "on the edge" in modern Slavic languages, and its population is similar to that of England or France, including many important minorities.
However, such a Ukraine does not have a corresponding place in the history books, "for the outside world, when they are praised, they are often regarded as 'Russians' or 'Soviets', and only when they have done something bad, they are called 'Ukrainians'", which is poignant.
Many countries and regions in the highland valleys clearly maintained a higher degree of independence than Ukraine on the Great Plains of Europe, and the high mountains became their natural barriers, keeping the earth-shaking events and invaders that took place in the outer lows firmly out of the mountains.
The human part of European prehistory has become a conventional way of describing the human part of European prehistory since 1836 when the Danish paleontologist Christian Thomson proposed the "Three Real Generations System" of stone, bronze and iron, which is not based on absolute time categories, and in different geographical scopes, the early, middle and late periods that enter each technological era are also different, and even within a given region, people may live in different stages of development, as people adapt to climatic conditions. Agriculture also developed better, food sources transitioned from gathering to production, and industries such as animal husbandry, textiles, pottery, and mining also emerged, and a large-scale colonial wave began to sweep across the European peninsula.
From the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age... Norman wrote all the way, integrating geographical features, humanistic characteristics, and cultural legends into this classical history of Europe to form a "history based on events". Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the "lame" Oedipus, the most frequent appearance in ancient Greek mythology and literature, archimedes's "pry up the fulcrum of the earth", "Black Athena" that brought great divisions to the field of classical studies... These anecdotes in geography, literature, philosophy, mathematics and other fields have all become the key to Norman's pen to open every door of time in the long river of history, which is both novel and interesting, fascinating, and presents a comprehensive and three-dimensional European entity between clever series.
European History: Classical Era + Age of Empire + Age of Transition (Set of 3 volumes) ¥205.5 Purchase