A Traveller's History of Germany

by Robert Cole

Germany is the most heavily populated of all the countries within the European Union. A Traveller’s History of Germany offers a complete and authoritative history of a country from the earliest of time to the present. It presents the facts in a clear and literate format and also gives the reader expert analysis of the events.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2004

Reviews

[Mommalibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly even-handed summary of historical events which impacted present day Germany. The Romans, Lombards, and Franks are included. I was interested to find out how many tribes passed through Germany. Saying you are of Celtic origin does not necessarily mean you are from the British Isles as the Celts also rampaged through German areas. Because of the many tribes, the people of current France and Northern Italy might have also been considered German had the lines been drawn differently when all the tiny local power centers finally coalesced into nations.

I, not being an expert, felt there were some errors (or at least out-dated theories) in the book. JFK said I am a jelly donut and others.

I was interested to read that between the world wars the U.S. (unknown companies) were actively investing in German industry. I wondered if this had anything to do with our hesitation to enter WWII.

Over and over, when I read history, especially this one of Germany, I thought 'what if'. What if Bismarck had not so completely dominated and there had been other capable or moderate politicians participating in a sequential set of orderly turn-overs of power rather than one strong man hanging on until he decayed in place.

What if the intellectuals of the Weimar Republic had not been so critcal and the higher culture had not been so outrageous? Would the populace have been so willing to fall for soothing pseudo 'real' German historical values.

The events of WWII are as cursorily covered as the rest of the material. Good or bad? Just the way the author handled the material. No mention is made of which of the structures or places described still exist and might be tourist worthy. This is just a very abbreviated history.

[Bdalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of an series of books of brief histories meant for travelers but which are readable by anyone wishing to obtain a general understanding of a country's history. The great thing about A Traveller's History of Germany is that it is concise. You can easily read it in a week to prepare for a journey. For example, the information about the Berlin Wall was one long paragraph. The information about World War II was seven pages. Since the book takes you from Neolithic Times to the present, you walk away with a more comprehensive idea of Germany's turbulent history. I found that this gave me a better understanding of Germany's more recent history. For example, if you don't know that Germany became a unified country until the late 1800s or about the movement of the country's boundaries you really don't understand the importance of nationalism and Germany's more recent history. The book is not oriented around a certain place and the historical venues you can see in that place. For example, if you are going to Munich and wish to see World War II sites near Munich, this book will not be of much use. A traditional guidebook would be better. Instead, it is a fast paced history lesson about the country as a whole. Should I have the chance to travel again to a place covered by this series, I will certainly pick up another one of the Traveller's history books.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really the Traveller's History series. They're concise, well organized survey histories of a specific region, starting in paleolithic and running up to the publishing date. Good at cause and effect and sprinkling in the bits of color that make history interesting instead of an endless recitation of dates and similarly named monarchs. Similarly to Italy, I suspect the sheer number of different regions that only really unify near the end made organizing this difficult, but the author kept things well aligned. The other big problem with German histories--that particularly horrific period that kind of looms over everything before and after--is dealt with sensitively and straightforwardly.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summary of the history of Germany in chronological order, but you can get bogged down in the names and dates if this is the first time you've learned about all of it. I found it much more interesting to read, and it made more sense to me, after I'd visited the major, historical cities of Germany. A nit-picky annoyance for me was that the author wasn't consistent with his date terminology with rulers - sometimes the date range after a person's name was the lifespan and sometimes it was the length of his reign. I also encountered a few errors so I naturally wondered if there were more.

But otherwise it was a good way to learn the history of Germany without being too academic and without reading numerous books. The author had a light tone with his writing, which I appreciated. I do recommend the book.

[Tama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book in the items left behind when one of our daughters moved out. This was a required book for her study abroad class. The book does provide a summary of years and years of history. I realized early on that I was not reading this book to memorize it - just to get a feel of the history before I traveled to Germany. I got a feel of how different cultures/religions moved through the area we now know as Germany. Now that we have taken the trip, I want to go back and read specifically about the places we saw.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dry - I'm not entirely sure what the "traveller's" portion is in the title - but entirely serviceable survey of German history from the prehistoric period through the modern day. I would've appreciated a more robust and well-illustrated geographical orientation at the outset of the book, but I suppose that's what Wikipedia is for. My copy had a few bizarre typos toward the end of the book, but in general the text was reasonably well edited.

[Brian]

It had been sitting on my shelf for ages. Meh. I enjoyed the last chapter, apart from him trotting out the old bit of nonsense about Kennedy referring to himself as a jelly doughnut. For the record, he didn't and if you ask a German whether or not he did, they'll wonder what you're talking about.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been over 5 years since I studied German history, and I wanted to refresh my knowledge before traveling to Germany in a couple months. The book was concise and easy to read and definitely met my needs. However, it needed better editing - extra or missing words, misspellings, and awkward sentences were scattered throughout.

[Acacia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would strongly suggest reading A Traveler's History of any country you are visiting prior to your visit to understand more of the history, culture, and customs. I didn't know about this before moving to Germany, but I wish I had read one for all the places I had previously traveled to.

[Danelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Concise enough not to get bored, detailed enough to learn all about how Germany actually became Germany. Talk about a long turbulent history!

[iTZKooPA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up on reading this. Simply wasn't interesting enough mainly because of the brevity of every historical entry, large or small.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent read, informative, straight forward and very enjoyable.