Description

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Central Europe is not just a space on a map but also a region of shared experience of mutual borrowings impositions and misapprehensions From the Roman Empire onwards it has been the target of invasion from the east In the Middle Ages Central Europeans cast their eastern foes as the dogmen They would later become the Turks Swedes Russians and Soviets all of whom pulled the region apart and remade it according to their own vision

Competition among Europes Middle Kingdoms yielded repeated cultural effervescences This was the first home of the High Renaissance outside Italy the cradle of the Reformation the starting point of the Enlightenment Romanticism the symphony and modern nationalism It was a permanent battleground too for religious and political ideas

Most recent histories of Central Europe confine themselves to the lands in between Germany and Russia homing in on Poland Hungary and what is now the Czech Republic This new history embraces the whole of Central Europe including the German lands as well as Ukraine and Switzerland The story of Europes Middle Kingdoms is a reminder of Central Europes precariousness of its creativity and turbulence and of the common cultural trends that make these lands so distinctive

2023 Martyn Rady P2023 Penguin Audio