Europe
A New History
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Apr 28, 2026
- Page Count
- 448 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9781541603813
Price
$19.99Price
$25.99 CADFormat
Format:
- ebook $19.99 $25.99 CAD
- Hardcover $35.00 $46.00 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $31.99
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“A true tour de force.” —Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
What do we talk about when we talk about Europe? Is it defined by geography? Or is it politics, or shared culture? In Europe, award-winning historian Roderick Beaton tells the story of Europe as never before—as the history of an idea, and a collective identity.
Since its dramatic birth in ancient Greece, “Europe” has been defined, and redefined, by its people. Through this powerful lens, and with the narrative drive and scope of a novelist, Beaton deftly surveys Europe’s major historical developments: the rise and fall of Rome; the explosion of Christianity; the intellectual ferment of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment; the arrival of Europeans in the Americas; the violent upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and the uncertainties of the present. Throughout, original sources allow the voices of the past, from Tacitus to Thatcher, to speak for themselves.
Grappling with the multilayered identities that have always come with being European, Europe places the Europe of today in a long arc of history stretching back more than 2,500 years.
Genre:
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“In lucid prose, uncluttered with superfluous dates or muddling names, free of ideological bias or bugbears, scrupulously annotated and richly informed, Europe: A New History moves sure-footedly across 2,500 years.”The Telegraph (UK)
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“Herculean in its ambition.”The Times (UK)
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“Beaton skilfully harts his way through the twists and turns of Europe’s last 250 years of political upheaval without losing sight of the questions of division and unity that have defined them. … This is a vitally timely book.”Irish Times
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“A great book.”History Today
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“The author, a specialist in ancient history, is at his best giving a succinct history of Greece and Rome [...and] also skillfully weaves into the history of events some formative moments of Europe's intellectual history.”Washington Free Beacon
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“A vividly insightful history of an ever-evolving continent.”Kirkus
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“A magisterial history, written with great panache, that is both enlightening and deeply readable. A true tour de force.”Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
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“Europe is big history at its best. In this captivating romp across twenty-five centuries, from the Battle of Marathon to Putin’s war on Ukraine, Roderick Beaton offers inspiring and surprising answers to one of the great questions of our age: What is Europe?”Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules—for Now
