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££8.99
Published
26 April 2018BF PB
9781910400739Ebook
Press Release
Coming soon.
READ IN AN AFTERNOON. REMEMBER FOR A LIFETIME
In his acclaimed new bestseller, James Hawes tells the story of Europe’s most admired and feared country, from Julius Caesar to Angela Merkel. With more than 100 maps and images, it is a fresh, concise and entertaining attempt to answer the question: are the Germans really us, or them?
'Certainly the most comprehensive and vivid history anyone could expect to find at that length… I don't know of a better short history of this great country.'
—Philip Pullman
- 'Here is Germany as you've never known it: a bold thesis; an authoritative sweep and an exhilarating read. Agree or disagree, this is a must for anyone interested in how Germany has come to be the way it is today.'
—Professor Karen Leeder - 'An excellent little book… [Hawes] knows what he's on about and his conclusions are measured, but he favours clear, concise prose over dense academese. He has a sense of humour, and a sharp eye for similarities between then and now.'
—The Spectator - 'The Shortest History of Germany, a new, must-read book by the writer James Hawes, [recounts] how the so-called limes separating Roman Germany from non-Roman Germany has remained a formative distinction throughout the post-ancient history of the German people.'
—Economist.com - 'A daring attempt to remedy the ignorance of the centuries in little over 200 pages… not just an entertaining canter past the most prominent landmarks in German history — also a serious, well-researched and radical rethinking of the continuities in German political life.' —Professor Nicholas Boyle
- 'A sparkling little book, which really does begin at the beginning… Hawes exemplifies the remarkable contribution of Anglo-Saxon scholarship to post-war German historiography… It is not accidental that some of the best minds in the Anglosphere have worried away at the German problem ever since 1945. The preceding generation had been dragged into two world wars, the Iron Curtain ran through Berlin, and getting to grips with German history was the key to preventing the Cold War from becoming a Third World War. Hawes has distilled all this into a primer that might be slipped into a prime ministerial red box.'
—Standpoint - 'An excellent, elegantly written overview of German history from the Iron Age to Angela Merkel's chancellorship… Authoritative and accessible'
—New European - 'Yes, the Nazis are here, but so too is a history stretching from the Germanic tribes who took on the Roman Empire, right up to Chancellor Angela Merkel… Comprehensive, vivid, and entertaining… if you want to understand a country on which much of the free world is now pinning its hopes, you could do worse than start here.'
—Irish Examiner
James Hawes
James Hawes studied German at Hertford College, Oxford and UCL, then held lectureships in German at the universities of Maynooth, Sheffield and Swansea. He has published six novels with Jonathan Cape. Speak for England (2005) predicted Brexit; it has been adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies, though not yet filmed.
His last book, Englanders and Huns, was shortlisted for the Political Books of the Year Awards in 2015. He leads the MA in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University.