Overview of European history?

January 5, 2004 6:55 AM

My girlfriend fiance (thanks, AskMefi!) has managed to make it through high school, college, and now grad school without taking a course in European history. She is looking for a objective, broad, but intelligent survey of the post-Renaissance period. Any book recommendations?
posted by PrinceValium to Education (7 answers total)

you could try this - it's much more general, but perhaps in the right spirit. not sure objective is quite the word, though.
posted by andrew cooke at 7:08 AM on January 5, 2004

Palmer & Colton's History of the Modern World was (and maybe still is) a standard text on the subject.
posted by cbrody at 7:18 AM on January 5, 2004

I loved From Dawn to Decadence : 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present by Jacques Barzun. It's also available as a recorded book from audible.com.
posted by grumblebee at 9:50 AM on January 5, 2004

Millennium, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.
posted by timothompson at 12:42 PM on January 5, 2004

Europe: A History by Davies is pretty good. I found that it skimmed over much that I already knew (English history) and assumed you had some knowledge, but at 1600 pages, it's hard to squeeze everything in.

I'm currently up to WWII, and have really enjoyed it.
posted by sauril at 1:41 PM on January 5, 2004

I second the recommendation for Palmer & Colton.
posted by kickingtheground at 2:01 PM on January 5, 2004

Second grumblebee's Barzun recommendation.
posted by Vidiot at 11:33 PM on January 5, 2004