The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe

In need of an updated understanding of current political movements in Central Europe, including the Ukraine war, I picked the most recent book I could find: this one by Martyn Rady. The book does its job quite well, covering many aspects of Central European history, culture, politics, with a wide brush. It has some uneven jumps between chronology and thematic presentation, which you need to get used to, but simultaneously following the threads between many nodes in a spider's web is always difficult.Where the book really fails quite badly is through the almost total lack of illustrations. Why give a long description of a work of art, for example, when you can just include a picture, and base your explanation on that? That is a very obsolete technique. Worse, though, is the dearth and poor quality of maps. The few maps included are poorly produced in low-contrast monochrome, and whereas many constantly varying borders are indicated, these are not consequently anchored to permanent topology like rivers and mountain ranges. There is also a total lack of arrows indicating dynamic factors such as population or army movements.In conclusion: a valuable piece of work which, with an additional month of hard work, could become excellent. Add colours and more and better maps. I look forward to seeing a revised and improved second edition. A supporting website featuring dynamic map displays would not be amiss either, but that requires a lot more work.

A brilliant survey of the area: developing politics, culture and religious affiliations. A great adjunct to Rady’s history of the Hapsburgs.Witty and accessible history from a first rate scholar.Sadly he is not well served by the cartographer as the maps are pale with inadequate coastal outlines and confusing shading!Don’t be deterred from reading this amazing and illuminating book

I bought this book by mistake thinking it was only about medieval central Europe - In fact it covers from early Medieval right through to modern times. I was about to return it but starting reading the first few chapters and was completely captivated. It is an excellent book.It's better than fiction. If you like easy-reads, this might not be for you. It is beautifully written, in its style and quality of English. The subject matter is ABSOLUTELY THRILLING. You couldn't get away with writing these accounts in fiction because people just wouldn't believe you. For instance, in medieval times, people were very religious and went on Christian pilgrimages from all parts of Europe to Rome and Jerusalem... about 25% of them were murdered on the way. Robbers and thieves hid along all the pilgrim paths. Medieval kings and emporers and aristocracy, in central Europe were steeped in slavery, capturing people from rural areas of their country and shipping them into slavery in various parts of Europe and the middle East - and pocketing a lot of money for it. King Henry V of England joined the Order of the Dragon, invited by King Sigismund of Luxembourg, who was then King of Hungary, who liked throwing his clothes off completely while at State banquets in front of foreign dignatories... and Emporer Charlegmagne really really liked his sister, apparently. A lot of European tribes seem to be have ethinically cleansed... disappeared - which was very sad to read about. (Sorry I may have got my details slightly wrong but that's the jist of it).There were a lot of lovely stories too, about good deeds such as great learning, book learning and universities.I bought this book in hardback version at my local bookshop not on Amazon (I frequently purchase my books on Amazon too, just not this time). The hardback is beautiful, with a yellow cover and a colourful dust jacket. The text is the right size - so it's a well designed book (many books are badly designed, with the text too-tiny etc). I'd recommend this book very highly.

Comprehensive, going back to antiquity, elegantly written and very clear - absolutely fascinating.