Pre-Owned Vanished Kingdoms : The Rise and Fall of States and Nations (Hardcover) 9780670022731

from Eyejaybee

Norman Davies has hit upon an interesting idea and addresses a frequently overlooked area of European history but somehow he seemed never quite to reach out and grasp the reader's undivided attention. His basic premise is that there have been many nations that have featured prominently, if fleeti...

from dcunning11235

Holy crap, I finished it! It took me two months, but I did it. (To be fair, I had a 'few' things going on, and finished a few other books over the same period.) This book is dense. It really is. But it is also really interesting. I didn't think I could enjoy this level of detail about states, fa...

from fist

"This too shal pass". Impressive history of states, some insignificant, some most powerful, some small, some covering a huge area - but all of them extinct. From an almost forgotten Celtic kingdom in the early Middle Ages to the demise of the USSR, Davies describes their apogee and end with clari...

from varske

I think you shouldn't attempt to read this book in one go. Like most Norman Davies books, this is physically too heavy and your arms will get tired! Also some chapters are too long and some too short. Some chapters will be more interesting depending on where you come from and what period of histo...

from expatscot

An excellent book and one that I'd give 4.5 to if I could, dropping the half just because you have to have an interest to value it. Opinionated, impressively researched and excellently written this is a book that anyone with any kind of interest in history really should read. Apart from making yo...