Europe Transformed, 1878-1919

Fontana History of Europe

by Norman Stone

This book provides readers with an introduction to the complex era from 1878 to the end of World War I.

Genres: History, World War I, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 1984

About the author

Norman Stone was a Scottish historian and author, who was a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara. He is a former Professor at the University of Oxford, Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to place. Written by a celebrated, if controversial historian who produced some excellent work on central Europe and Russia, it is a fact and statistically packed survey of the last decades of the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries, to the end of the First World War. There is a lot of dense information about politics, social and economic developments, written with wit and provocative judgments (for which Norman Stone was notorious). At the same time, it is not referenced as an academic work would be and this makes the book rather difficult to use in following up the mass of information that is provided. The book closes with an essay about the cultural scene at the start of the twentieth century that is fine as far as it goes but ends abruptly.

All in all, a challenging book which is not the best of its type but does include some fascinating detail and masterly summaries of events and trends.

[Frank Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

I acquired this book mostly to delve into the causes of the First World War. It did help, but not as much as I'd hoped. I found the book very frustrating - badly structured, with rambling prose and a seeming assumption that you already knew something about European history. On any one page, Stone could flit across several decades and various countries and also introduce a number of key characters. I think this was probably regarded as an acceptable writing style for an academic in the 80's. I don't think he'd get away with it now.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The politics and sociology of the period up to and including the First World War.

[Stephen Durrance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, full-on, jam-packed with info, facts etc. Could have done with more translations, explanations of some words, phrases though.