Sparse smatterings of interesting facts intertwined with large sections of total hyperbole and bias. This is not a history book, rather an opinion piece on why Catholicism is the greatest thing to happen to Europe, whilst the 'barbaric' east Germans have always held it back. Perhaps if the author consistently took the same magnifying glass to the corruption and misgivings of West Germany, then perhaps the book would be slightly more rounded and balanced. There are some topics which display a total lack of understanding, and to be honest I struggled to read on past the misinformed part about Hegel. The conclusion also seemed off-kilter, is the author suggesting that East Germany be turned into an independent state just to save Europe? However, the author has excellent prose and can be funny at points, it's just a shame that this book reads more like a Dailymail-does-history opinion piece. ( )

Clearly written, easy to follow, enjoyable to read. My one complaint is that the maps were nearly illegible because the font was minuscule and only supposedly-different shades of grey were used. ( )

I found it quite strange which parts of history the author emphasized, and which parts he skipped. Apparently, the two world wars did not bear mentioning.
The author tries to paint a very pointed west-vs-east map of Germany. I'm sure he has a point, but it does not seem to be the whole truth.
This is particularly noticeable in his summary of the more recent events, which seem particularly single-sided.
Still, an entertaining little book. ( )

This reminded me greatly of “An introduction to the ancient Greeks”, which is a very good thing.

This is a survey history book. Openly so. But in taking to a study of a topic it is a good idea to read a survey book first. It provides the frame work for later study and insight and information.

And for a survey book this actually has quite a bit of nuance and insight in the first place. Something that one can’t demand but it is very nice to receive.

It took me three days to read. That’s with life demanding it’s attention. The writing style is friendly, easy and effective.

And not to be political, but in the current climate this is a good book to read. So do. ( )

An unusual history, this sets out to package a history of Germany into an easily-digested work, suited to our age of distrust of obvious experts. The style is highly journalistic, but meatier quotes are called out as we go along. Only when we reach the end does the author make their pedigree clear; not a historian, true, but certainly an academic, with access to academic sources. Some of the quotations made along the way were familiar to me, as well.

The thesis the book puts forward is that many of the values popularly thought of as "German" are actually Prussian; and much of the history of Germany in the 20th Century can be explained by pointing to Prussian hegemony over the rest of Germany, using the industrial and financial might of western Germany to drive their ambition. This is not a new idea - I first came across it in a work of current affairs written in 1916 - but I've not seen it expressed much in more recent histories.

The finger of blame is pointed at Bismarck, who set up a lot of mechanisms to steer Germany along the routes he wanted. The trouble is that after Bismarck fell, those mechanisms, from military institutions to clubs and societies, each with their own nationalistic agenda, carried on without him, and went along the routes of least resistance. The rest really is history.

Some have been very critical of this book, suggesting it is superficial, inaccurate, or even racist. But it has to be measured against its target audience. There are Britons nowadays who stick to the idea of Germany as militaristic, expansionist, arrogant and likely to repeat the actions of the past. This book attempts to set them right.

In attempting to squeeze the whole span of German history down into fewer than 230 pages, a lot has to be missed out. Perhaps the two omissions I noticed the most were a discussion of the origins of Hitler's motivations, and German tensions within NATO in the 1980s. Hitler's obsession with Germany, as an Austrian, can only be understood with reference to the nature of Austrian politics in the 19th Century; the divide between those who felt Austria should be looking west and those who felt it should be looking east. As for NATO in the 1980s, the deployment of Pershing missiles to Germany upset a lot of people in the German establishment who saw this as an attempt by America to fight World War 3 away from the Continental USA. Having been bombed almost back to the Stone Age just a generation before, many in Germany were not prepared to undergo the same again - only much worse - on behalf of somebody else. NATO's Exercise Able Archer was the final straw, almost igniting that war because the Soviets were on the verge of mistaking it for a genuine attack. Hawes attributes the progress on disarmament that followed specifically to Helmut Kohl; but there was a major groundswell of opinion in West Germany that he could not ignore.

But these are minor matters. Another five or ten pages probably wouldn't have mattered; then again, this book has the advantage of being right up to date (my copy being the 2nd, revised edition of 2020), looking at Angela Merkel with some degree of perspective as she draws near to the end of her term of office, and casting Vladimir Putin as a modern-day Tsar.

If you have never read any German history or know nothing of the country, this is a quick start. It should not be the only source if you intend any sort of in-depth knowledge or analysis; but it is far from the superficial gloss some would have you believe. ( )