Roller-Coaster: Europe, 1950-2017 (Penguin History of Europe #9)
Ian Kershaw
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
4.17
· 12 ratings · 656 pages · Published: 30 Aug 2018
Europe was now a divided continent, living under the nuclear threat in a period intermittently fraught with anxiety. Europeans experienced a 'roller-coaster ride', both in the sense that they were flung through a series of events which threatened disaster, but also in the sense that they were no longer in charge of their own destinies: for much of the period the USA and USSR effectively reduced Europeans to helpless figures whose fates were dictated to them depending on the vagaries of the Cold War. There were, by most definitions, striking successes - the Soviet bloc melted away, dictatorships vanished and Germany was successfully reunited. But accelerating globalisation brought new fragilities. The impact of interlocking crises after 2008 was the clearest warning to Europeans that there was no guarantee of peace and stability.
In this remarkable book, Ian Kershaw has created a grand panorama of the world we live in and where it came from. Drawing on examples from all across Europe, Roller-Coaster will make us all rethink Europe and what it means to be European.
Tagged as:
- europe 3
- political 3
- 20th century 2
- historical 2
- cold war 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- non-fiction 3
- audiobook 2
romance tags
crime tags
literary-fiction tags
historical-fiction tags
fantasy tags
sci-fi tags
action-adventure tags
thriller tags
horror tags
Collections/Custom tags
The 'Penguin History of Europe' series
4.06 · 80 ratings- The Birth of Classical Europe: A History from Troy to Augustine by Ian Kershaw Book #1
- The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000 by Ian Kershaw Book #2
- The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Ian Kershaw Book #6
- The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 by Ian Kershaw Book #7
- To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914-1949 by Ian Kershaw Book #8
- Roller-Coaster: Europe, 1950-2017 by Ian Kershaw Book #9