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A review by bittersweet_symphony
The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe by Michael Pye
2.0
If it weren't for the subject matter I would give this book a single star.
Pye begins with a promising premise and ultimately falls short of it, majorly. He attempts to tell the tale of Northern Europe where "identity became a matter of where you were and where you last came from, not some abstract notion of race; peoples were not separated sharply as they were by nineteenth-century frontiers, venturing out only to conquer or be conquered. Indeed, quite often they ventured out to change sides. Instead of dark mistakes about pure blood, racial identity, homogenous nations with their own soul and spirit and distinct nature, we have something far more exciting: the story of people making choices, not always freely, sometimes under fearsome pressure, but still choosing and inventing and making lives for themselves." He preaches history as a danger to nationalism.
Unfortunately, his book is poorly organized, and disjointed. He meanders through a patchwork of stories, commentary, and details that don't appear to be threaded together by any central thesis. He jumps from one century to another, from one historical figure to the next and ends a chapter without connecting it to his ultimate premise. The reader is left wondering, how the hell did this end up shaping modern Europe? He doesn't connect the dots and doesn't make a convincing case. Did the peoples of the North Seas impact history? Certainly, but no case is made for exactly how the fashion, politics, money, law, science, and views on marriage directly created Modern Europe.
He spewed all sorts of trivia, small scenes, and vague summaries about the medieval period. He gives his readers little structure upon which to hang and organize all these bits of information. I wanted so badly to care and be interested. Instead, he took a subject I care a lot about and turned it into flotsam and jetsom--how does one make Vikings and the wanderers of Northern Europe uninteresting?
I am a disciplined reader who completes nearly every book I start, as a personal rule, even when I don't gather much joy from it. This book is one of those rare exceptions.
Pye begins with a promising premise and ultimately falls short of it, majorly. He attempts to tell the tale of Northern Europe where "identity became a matter of where you were and where you last came from, not some abstract notion of race; peoples were not separated sharply as they were by nineteenth-century frontiers, venturing out only to conquer or be conquered. Indeed, quite often they ventured out to change sides. Instead of dark mistakes about pure blood, racial identity, homogenous nations with their own soul and spirit and distinct nature, we have something far more exciting: the story of people making choices, not always freely, sometimes under fearsome pressure, but still choosing and inventing and making lives for themselves." He preaches history as a danger to nationalism.
Unfortunately, his book is poorly organized, and disjointed. He meanders through a patchwork of stories, commentary, and details that don't appear to be threaded together by any central thesis. He jumps from one century to another, from one historical figure to the next and ends a chapter without connecting it to his ultimate premise. The reader is left wondering, how the hell did this end up shaping modern Europe? He doesn't connect the dots and doesn't make a convincing case. Did the peoples of the North Seas impact history? Certainly, but no case is made for exactly how the fashion, politics, money, law, science, and views on marriage directly created Modern Europe.
He spewed all sorts of trivia, small scenes, and vague summaries about the medieval period. He gives his readers little structure upon which to hang and organize all these bits of information. I wanted so badly to care and be interested. Instead, he took a subject I care a lot about and turned it into flotsam and jetsom--how does one make Vikings and the wanderers of Northern Europe uninteresting?
I am a disciplined reader who completes nearly every book I start, as a personal rule, even when I don't gather much joy from it. This book is one of those rare exceptions.