A History of Modern Europe, Second Edition: From the Renaissance to the Present (One-Volume Edition),   ISBN:9780393979107

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This book is typically too expensive for me to buy. I couldn't believe the great price. It arrived quickly in perfect shape.

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My initial contact with Merriman was with the 2nd volume of his 1st edition of "History of Modern Europe" for a class in college. As a self-professed "history nerd", I find some works to be more engrossing than the lay historian might. Upon reading Merriman's work, however, I was completely drawn into the journey through the history of Europe. Merriman brilliantly weaves vast quanitites of information from all genres into a relatively concise history. He has balanced his narrative with interesting anecdotes and snippets of the human quirks that give flavor to any history. Even more, however, is his crackling prose. Make no mistake, I am not placing him alongside Dickens or Henry James when it comes to masterful prose. Merriman does offer a fluid text that engages the reader, unlike the all-too-often crippling effect of Kalahari-dry writing.

Merriman provokes thought about issues that molded and wound Europe into what it is today. The reader can jump into this work with both feet and be immersed in a vivid world of kingdoms, religion-dominated realms, and, eventually, the nation-state.

I recommend this text for anyone who is looking for an in-depth, yet not suffocating history of Europe.

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I picked up this volume many years ago and have read it in fits and starts, one chunk at a time. At about 1500 pages, it's a bit much to consume all at once. Nevertheless, as a lover of history and a person who is committed to self-educating away some of the gaps in my prior education, I find this to be a highly valuable addition to my library.

Merriman's approach is not straight chronology, but rather it is theme-based. For example, one segment may focus on the Renaissance in the Italian city-states, another on the Reformation, and another may discuss the wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants, with each segment loosely encompassing the relevant historical periods for those themes. There tends to be some overlap between various segments, along with allusions to topics that are covered in detail in other chapters. Although this seems occasionally disjointed, the overall presentation style allows for a more coherent understanding of each major historical theme.

In general I found this volume to be easy to read, with a reasonably smooth narrative flow. Although this is, in essence, a college textbook, it lacks the dry, didactic flavor usually associated with textbooks. The first edition covers roughly 500 years of European history, ending with the collapse of Communism, so it's out of date for the past 15 years or so, but most of us are quite capable of filling in those gaps. Besides, that's what the second edition of this book is for. I would definitely recommend this one.

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Modern Europe has advanced from the fifteen Western countries which formed the European Union in 1996 to meet the needs of high unemployment and to come up with a common currency, they called it 'euro.' This is a welfare state with high taxes which hurt the average person but is haven to college students who can get their education free and health care is free, also.

As we know from the local to the federal, governments always put their own interests ahead of any common interests, always with private deliberations and decisions. There was a call for a need for equilibrium. After the falll of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, things moved slowly and it was a "Catch-22" situation.

In a previous review I did of THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE, I felt that what I was writing was the truth, but I see now that some of it was exaggeration. EMU, as it was called, would become cohesive and financially strong enough to dwarf the United States of America and our dollar. That book tried to make evreyone think that they had already overpowered American in economics. Granted, they do have some of our big factories there now, which is tragic for U.S. A. workers, but they have a far piece to go to be bigger and better.

We have fifty states all under one government and one president. Those countries they now call 'states' keep their individual ruling parties and will alternate every two years with a president from one of the group -- which will no doubt fail. Even Monte Carlo will have a turn, along with Germany, Spain, France, and the other large 'states.' It just won't work!

Read THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE SOVIET EMPIRE by Fred Coleman and see what will possibly happed to the United State of Europe. It's is vainglorious to think it would ever work with so many different nationalities and too many grudges against each other for past events. France has a history for revolution, so look toward that 'state' to see how things are progressing. Spain is caught in the middle. There is a woman here who is from Romania and, when I mentioned the United States of Europe, she had no interest and never a desire to return to Europe. She was happy to receive a letter from her nephew there.

I don't know whose idea it was to make a modren 'empire' as in the old days, Roman, British, French, but whoever -- it just won't work as it was planned, to overtake the U.S.A. There will be a struggle for power among the differing factions, no way around it. That's human nature.

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I used this book recently for a High School AP European History course. It was extremely easy to read and flowed easily from one topic to another. It was very helpful in determining the broad socioeconomic and political elements accross the whole of Europe at specific points in history. (It breaks each country's history into little bricks of information that are clear, concise sections.)
Although the book was determined to be too expensive and detailed for the course (because it is High School AP for a college level European History survey course), I continue to depend on it when studying world history in college. It is definately worth the money if only to keep around for those rainy days when you need some general background knowledge of Germany or Sweden during the 1450s.