Europe

1. Europe Trips With Kids - Family Travel Western Europe - Europe trips with kids: sightseeing, getting around, and more for family travel in Western Europe. travelwithkids.about.com Mama
2. How the Scots Invented the Modern World- The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It

   How the Scots Invented the Modern World

   The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It:
   • Book by Arthur Herman.
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11. Postwar- A History of Europe Since 1945

    Postwar

    A History of Europe Since 1945:
    • Book by Tony Judt.
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17. Europe for Visitors September 2003 Archive - Visit the link for details. goeurope.about.com Mama
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20. Neither Here nor There- Travels in Europe

    Neither Here nor There

    Travels in Europe:
    • Book by Bill Bryson.
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29. Rick Steves' Best of Europe 2007 (Rick Steves)

    Rick Steves' Best of Europe 2007 (Rick Steves)

• Book by Rick Steves.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World- The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It

How the Scots Invented the Modern World

The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It:

It is only natural, Herman suggests, that a country that once ranked among Europe's poorest, if most literate, would prize the ideal of progress, measured "by how far we have come from where we once were." Forged in the Scottish Enlightenment, that ideal would inform the political theories of Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith, and David Hume, and other Scottish thinkers who viewed "man as a product of history," and whose collective enterprise involved "nothing less than a massive reordering of human knowledge" (yielding, among other things, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in Edinburgh in 1768, and the Declaration of Independence, published in Philadelphia just a few years later). On a more immediately practical front, but no less bound to that notion of progress, Scotland also fielded inventors, warriors, administrators, and diplomats such as Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie, Simon [MacTavish]Create?, and Charles James Napier, who created empires and great fortunes, extending Scotland's reach into every corner of the world.

Herman examines the lives and work of these and many more eminent Scots, capably defending his thesis and arguing, with both skill and good cheer, that the Scots "have by and large made the world a better place rather than a worse place." --Gregory [McNamee]Create?Description: Who formed the first modern nation?
Who created the first literate society?
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism?
The Scots.

Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.

Arthur Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. He lucidly summarizes the ideas, discoveries, and achievements that made this small country facing on the North Atlantic an inspiration and driving force in world history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond.

Victorian historian John Anthony Froude once proclaimed, “No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world’s history as the Scots have done.” And no one who has taken this incredible historical trek, from the Highland glens and the factories and slums of Glasgow to the California Gold Rush and the search for the source of the Nile, will ever view Scotland and the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again. For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.

“The point of this book is that being Scottish turns out to be more than just a matter of nationality or place of origin or clan or even culture. It is also a state of mind, a way of viewing the world and our place in it. . . . This is the story of how the Scots created the basic idea of modernity. It will show how that idea transformed their own culture and society in the eighteenth century, and how they carried it with them wherever they went. Obviously, the Scots did not do everything by themselves: other nations—Germans, French, English, Italians, Russians, and many others—have their place in the making of the modern world. But it is the Scots more than anyone else who have created the lens through which we see the final product. When we gaze out on a contemporary world shaped by technology, capitalism, and modern democracy, and struggle to find our place as individuals in it, we are in effect viewing the world as the Scots did. . . . The story of Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is one of hard-earned triumph and heart-rending tragedy, spilled blood and ruined lives, as well as of great achievement.”
—FROM THE PREFACE

• Review:: 'Capturing Human Nature & Defining Good Policies for Government It was nice to re-learn the old adage to "not judge a book by its cover". I had been reluctant to read the book by the title alone and what a missed pleasure and educational experience that would have been. As some other reviewers have noted, the title is not entirely indicative of the topics explored. The wealth of knowledge of the new discoveries of human nature, good government, and historical shifts due to the 'changes in the means of production' (i.e. capitalism) abound from Lord Kames to Adam Smith during the Scottish Enlightenment. Also, if one is interested in the genesis of North America and other Democracies, one should not bypass this book. The book is divided in two parts, of the "Ephinany" (I call it Human Nature discovery) and the "Diaspora". This 1st part and I believe the heart of the book primarily explores the Scottish Enlightenment of the Protestant ethos from Francis Hutcheson, Lord Kames to Adam Smith and David Hume of 'man as a product of history and that we are ultimately creatures of our environment' and 'the way people earn a living shapes the character of their laws, their government, and their culture'. The 2nd part is the Diaspora of the Scots due to the 'clearances' or 'famines' and other reasons and their migrational impact and contributions to other societies. As for many reviewer's concern about the footnotes or lack there of, such items like the origins of 'blackmail' or 'redneck' are easily found or verified by completing a search with multiple sources identified within a few seconds. However, I do see their point with respect to the many quotes within the book, but don't believe this takes away from the theme of topics the author explores and appear to not have been challenged since publication. All in, a worthwhile read and high marks if nothing else than for just the 1st part of the book with the exploration of themes on policies for good government and the 'changes in the means of production' and its impact on history.
• Review:: 'Informative, readable, entertaining and surprisingly balanced despite the title I am partially of Scottish descent, have the fortune of having a Scottish surname, and I get to wear the best looking kilt at the highland games every year. I even have my clan crest tattooed on my arm and mess around with my bagpipe chanters once in awhile. A friend of mine of German descent, knowing that I enjoyed my ethnicity so, bought this book for me for my birthday last year. Despite all the aforementioned displays of my ethnic identity and pride I found the title of this book off-putting. The Scots certainly did not invent the modern world on their lonesome or at least not "everything in it." As I began the book though I found that it was actually fairly balanced and the title is misleading. Some marketing twerp probably thought it up. The author does stretch a little a times, but by and large he does an excellent job of explaining how many of the features of our modern education system, technology, engineering, architecture, and political and religious beliefs are either by and large an achievement of the Scots initially or how the Scots had a significant influence on them. It was actually a truly fascinating book and extremely readable which is always a wonderful thing to find in a non-fiction history book. I highly recommend this one, and have even thought of reading it a second time myself to better fix what I learned in my mind. This is a grand book regardless of your ethnicity and I'd actually love to read similar treatises by this author on the Romans, the Greeks, the Irish and the Chinese to tell you the truth.
• Review:: 'Great Discussion Book for Book Clubs More about the Scots than most would ever want to know...Jewels of wisdom and insight, many in number, are contained herein, but finding them, at times, can be a difficult read...at other times, a thoroughly delighful read. One wonders if the author is not "reaching" at times, but the provocative thoughts make great discussion topics....This is an excellent book for book clubs, especially men's book clubs, evoking many different views and reactions on a number of important and timely topics. Just how much does the Modern World owe the Scots? More than you might think.
• Review:: 'The scottish had a part too. This book is a lot about Scotland and there influence, and how the scots managed to do so much to help create the modern world.
• Review:: 'A fun, narrow view of world history Herman's book is yet again another example of an ethnocentric world view. While the book is an easy read and serves to illuminate much of Scottish history to the general reader, on a whole, Herman's message is one that will slant your perspective of Scots in an overgeneralized and demeaning fashion. His treatment of the Highlanders as 'primitive' culture is truly a shame. I only recommend this book as a general introduction to an aware and highly objective reader.

• Similar books:
• To Rule the Waves- How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
• America's Founding Secret- What the Scottish Enlightenment Taught Our Founding Fathers
• The Mark of the Scots- Their Astonishing Contributions to History, Science, Democracy, Literature, and the Arts
• How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)
• The Scottish 100- Portraits of History's Most Influential Scots

Postwar- A History of Europe Since 1945

Postwar

A History of Europe Since 1945:

Judt treats the entire continent as a whole, providing equal coverage of social changes, economic forces, and cultural shifts in western and eastern Europe. He offers a county-by-county analysis of how each Eastern nation shed Communism and traces the rise of the European Union, looking at what it represents both economically and ideologically. Along with the dealings between European nations, he also covers Europe's conflicted relationship with the United States, which learned much different lessons from World War II than did Europe. In particular, he studies the success of the Marshall Plan and the way the West both appreciated and resented the help, for acceptance of it reminded them of their diminished place in the world. No impartial observer, Judt offers his judgments and opinions throughout the book in an attempt to instruct as well as inform. If a moral lesson is to come from World War II, Judt writes, "then it will have to be taught afresh with each passing generation. 'European Union' may be an answer to history, but it can never be a substitute." This book would be an excellent place to start that lesson. --Shawn CarkonenDescription: Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review

Almost a decade in the making , this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.

* A Time and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
* Maps, photos, and cartoons throughout

• Review:: 'funny thing... Tony Judt's "presentation" on "The Israel Lobby" in the Polish Embassy was cancelled today because of the obvious anti-semitism involved. Tony Judt believes there is a "Jewish influence" controlling "the media", our government, and just about everything except your local 7/11. Tony Judt writes for the New York Review of Books. Tony Judt "claims" he is a Jew. Tony Judt can be trusted to write a history book about as far as I can throw him.
• Review:: 'worthy, not perfect I have just finished Mr.Judt's tome on modern Europe. I am a little embarrassed to admit that it took me several months. I enjoyed learning the information; the book is certainly filled with detail. It is not by any means an easy read or a "page turner, " however. Although I agree with some other reviewers that the US' role is deemphasized a bit, overall I felt the author was fairly objective. In contrast to a reviewer's comment that the French will love this book, I would argue that the author reveals the French during this period as deeply flawed. Certainly the Soviet leadership properly receives a great deal of blame, as do many of the citizenry throughout Europe. I agree that the book's strength lies in the breadth of the information, which at first seems overwhelming but is kept semi-manageable. Mr. Judt is less successful in neatly synthesizing all the info, but I personally think that that is primarily a realistic function of the subject matter. I did find the epilogue discussing specifically the treatment of jews a little jarring in its placement. In sum, for the average reader interested in history, the book is an ambitious, worthy, and overall well-written endeavor. Be prepared for a bit of a slog, however.
• Review:: 'What is the future of Europe? "Postwar - A history of Europe since 1945" by Tony Judt is the best book I have read on the subject. Its perspective on events since 1989 up to 2005 is remarkably good. Only two generations have passed since World War 2, and the risk with a book about this period is that its conclusions and themes may prove to be foolish in the fullness of time. One is reminded of Mao's response to a question about the consequences of the French Revolution, "It is too soon to tell." We can probably be reasonably sure that the history of Europe from the collapse of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires plus the Soviet upheavals after WW1 to the final territorial and ethnic spasm in the Balkans in the 1990s can probably be written with some certainty, although we still lack access to original source documents for the Soviet role over that period. All books dealing with post-war European history suffer from the fact that limited archival material from the Soviet Union has been available for study. Historians are forced to rely on sporadic Soviet documents and speeches and the assessments of western diplomats and analysts to interpret Soviet thinking and intentions. The result is that this book (and others) views the history of the Communist world with Western eyes and Western mindsets. We are denied access to the thoughts, fears and hopes of communist politicians and dissidents and their influence on history. Hopefully, one day, more archival and other documents will become available to historians and a more balanced history will emerge over time. If I may give another analogy: at present historians writing of the Communist world are peering through the windows of a house trying to understand the lives of the family living there. They see people going to and fro in the rooms. Occasionally they get glimpses of what the individuals are reading and writing. Sometimes a resident will hold up a photo or document for the historian to see. But the historian cannot hear what they say, nor can he go inside the house to talk to them or inspect their documents, or ask them their views on the outside world. He can draw conclusions only from what he sees through the windows. A big message from this book is that the recovery and prosperity enjoyed by Western Europe for half a century is due to both the US and the USSR. The US provided critical economic aid and political support to Europe, including West Germany, because of the threat assumed to be posed by the USSR. Without such a threat, the US may have retreated into isolationism, leaving the Europeans to sort out the mess. Without the threat of the USSR, there may not have been the will forgo reparations from Germany and to encourage West Germany to recover. These were distinct possibilities in the immediate post-war period. The book deals only with the history of Western Europe, with very little explanation of the impact of the rest of the world on that history. Events and policies in the USSR and USA are covered to the extent that they directly impinged on Europe. However, Communist and post-colonial developments in Asia and Africa certainly reinforced cold war attitudes in Europe, if they did not directly influence them. What must still be provisional is the history of Europe since say 1990. Will the European Union and the Euro survive the test of time, or will one or the other go into the dustbin of history? Judt's description of the moribund Soviet economies in the 1970s is the best I have read on the subject. The joke "You pretend to work and we pretend to pay you" sums up the cynicism and inefficiencies of Eastern bloc economies. His account of the final years of the Eastern Bloc is excellent, as is discussion of the key issues facing Europe in the aftermath of its collapse and the apparent success of free market ideologies. The final chapters of the struggle between socialism (in the form of modern European social capitalism) and capitalist individualism on the US model has yet to be written. Communism has probably failed for all time, but that does not mean that unrestrained US-style free enterprise will take over Europe. Beware of historians who proclaim "the end of history" and the "triumph of liberal democratic capitalism". Fortunately, Judt is too sensible to make such hubristic claims, although he does lean towards the European model. Which model of society will "win" in the course of the 21st Century - the unfettered capitalism of the US, or the social capitalism of the EU? What is the future of the nation state in the face of the challenges from terrorist extremism? These are important questions, and Judt's book provides the reader with an excellent exposition of the political, social and economic circumstances surrounding them.
• Review:: 'GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF NOTHING See what happens when the author's friends write the reviews? After all the glowing raves given "Postwar," I spent fancy money on it, and in the end, I came to agree with the only negative review of it I saw, in The Economist. You are misled by the acuity of the first chapter, in which Judt explains how much the current peace of Europe derives from the severe ethnic cleansing that took place there during and just after World War II--a fascinating point quite new to me. But after that, over 830 pages, Judt tries to explain too much and seems to get to the bottom of nothing. What did Margaret Thatcher really accomplish for England? I still don't know, though I learned a lot on my way to not knowing. This was the failing cited by The Economist reviewer, too. If you want a history of the war's aftermath in Europe (though only up to the mid-fifties) try "1945" by Gregor Dallas: distilled, acute, clear, concrete, fresh, and compelling. Maybe Dallas needs to hustle academic insiders as well as Judt does, for unlike Judt, Dallas actually delivers the goods and deserves the credit wasted on Judt.
• Review:: 'Big History, Written Small Englishman Tony Judt's POSTWAR is an ambitious and worthwhile undertaking: to give a coherent account of the history of Europe from 1945. The outline of events is well known: a continent in ruins at the end of the Second World War, the miraculous rise of Western Europe from the wreckage, the concurrent enslavement of the East, and thence the titanic struggle between the two world systems, culminating in the triumph of liberal democracy over totalitarian state control. It is a great story, surely one of the finest chapters in the history of human civilization. Judt seems to take the view (with which most people would likely agree) that great shifts in history ultimately rest upon the underlying economics. In the big picture, Communism failed because it was unproductive, capitalism succeeded because it was the opposite. The question he asks is a good one: why did it happen when it did? Why, after having survived so long (since 1917, in the case of the Soviets) did the Eastern Block suddenly collapse at the end of the eighties, and so rapidly? His answer is, astonishingly, the Helsinki Accords. "Against all expectation," he claims, "it [Brezhnev's signing of the Helsinki Accords] was to prove mortal." (p. 503). The argument here seems to be that by having agreed to the Helsinki Accords (which included some boilerplate language on human rights), the Communist leaders were thereafter hamstrung in suppressing those dissidents who dressed their opposition in terms of human rights rather than as political attacks against the Party. He thus attributes the collapse of Communism to the role of dissenters within the non-Soviet Eastern Block countries. Judt seems not to have grasped that these countries were just the playing field, not the actual players. He refers to himself as having been in Czechoslovakia at this time; perhaps this is why he seems to think that the minor protest groups within the Soviet satellites were something other than marginal--as causal agents rather than benefactors of larger forces. In this book, Vaclav Havel plays a far greater role than Ronald Reagan in the collapse of Communism. In fact the name "Reagan" itself only appears a dozen or so times--in other words, it is rarely cited, and then usually in the off-hand manner with which those who wish they had influence dismiss those who do. (Reagan's speech at the Berlin Wall is not even mentioned, something hard to fathom in an 800-page history of postwar Europe.) Eventually, the anti-American streak which runs through this book from the beginning emerges into plain sight: "But it should not be concluded...that it was American encouragement or support which precipitated or facilitated their [Eastern Europe's] liberation." (p. 631) and then later, equally bluntly, "...[despite] the self-congratulatory narrative that has entered the American public record, Washington did not `bring down' Communism, Communism imploded of its own accord." (p. 659.) Really? Who would have thought that forty years of American effort in the Cold War was just a waste of time? This proposition is such obvious nonsense that it really does not need to be argued against, but the wonder is that someone who appears to understand the function of economics in history can fail to appreciate the central role of America, and specifically of the American taxpayer, in postwar Europe. America paid for Europe's reconstruction (Marshall Plan). America paid for Europe's welfare states (by relieving their governments of the need to pay for their own defense, and also in the form of endless credits and loans). America paid for Europe's economic prosperity (by bankrolling the agencies which funded it--such as the IMF & World Bank--and by opening American markets to European goods while allowing European markets to remain subsidized and protected; something that is still the case today, from agriculture to Airbus). And finally, it was America who paid for the Soviet's defeat. Without America, modern Europe would not exist. Yes, it is undeniable that Communism rotted from the inside. But rot by itself does not cause collapse (otherwise how to explain North Korea, a long-bankrupt thugocracy that survived even the death of the former thug-in-chief?) Such states continue to exist indefinitely, until given a push. And so to answer Judt's own question: the reason Communism collapsed when it did was because America pushed. Ronald Reagan reversed American policy and stood up to the Soviets, and did so at a time when the major Western European states were cowering in postures of supplication and appeasement (Thatcher's UK excepted). It had nothing to do with the Helsinki Accords. Judt flatters himself in the preface that his book will be controversial, but to this reader his conclusions are too silly to be worthy of controversy. They are simply wrong. It is a pity Judt fails here. The fundamental lesson to be drawn from the history of postwar Europe is that it is no good trying to make friends with the schoolyard bully--or to give him your lunch money in order not to get beaten up (the European response). The lesson is that you must stand up to bullies. Appeasement in all its guises--rapprochement, Ostpolitik, engagement, detente, Nixon/Kissinger-style scheming, or Carter's endless vacillation--inevitably leads to failure. And when the bill finally comes due, as it always does, then the accrued interest can be enormously costly in human life. This was true in Munich in 1938, and it remains true today. Given the current state of the world, we could have used a book which reminded us of this basic truth right now. There are numerous errors and omissions, mostly minor (Iceland is missing from the cover maps), occasionally more significant (For example, there is no understanding that the repeated attacks by American hedge funds against the weak European currencies did much more than just blow England and Italy out of the ERM in 1992. They also forced a hugely embarrassing French devaluation in 1993--in the form of widened intervention bands--and imposed a hitherto unknown market rigor upon the respective governments, basically requiring them to depoliticize monetary policy and rein in fiscal policy--major changes in how these governments governed. The attacks also contributed to the ready adoption of the Euro, as a collective defense against George Soros.) But any book of this scope will contain errors and omissions; in fact the strength of POSTWAR is its vast collection of facts and figures and statistics (although weakened by the lack of source citations.) It is in the small-scale work of collecting data that Judt succeeds. It is in the big-scale work of interpreting those data that he fails. For example, toward the end of the book there is an account of the disaster in the Balkans following the break up of Yugoslavia. Judt correctly identifies the nadir of postwar Europe: the slaughter at Srebrenica, in which 7400 Muslims were murdered under the noses of Dutch soldiers serving under UN command. He then goes on to contrast the situation when NATO took over, at which point the slaughters promptly stopped, and ten years of peace ensued (enduring to this day). Surely this is something to which you would ask: Why? The answer is simple: the UN force, as is usual with UN forces, was too small, had a weak and compromised mandate, was composed of soldiers who were inadequately equipped and commanded, and who operated under unrealistic rules of engagement. But the NATO force tolerated no nonsense, they came in with the intention of standing up to the Serbs, and had the ROE to do it. The Serb `army' (if thugs who slaughter civilians can be dignified with such a term) promptly collapsed. Same lesson: bullies must be stood up to. Perhaps it is the fact that the force was American-led which prevented Judt from seeing this. (At the time of writing, the UN is once again dithering in the same old way on the same old issue--this time in Lebanon and Darfur--a perfect example of why we should learn from the past instead of repeating it, as seems all but inevitable right now. What a sorry institution the UN has become!) Judt gives some good detail of postwar political theory on the continent--something usually missing from English-language accounts, other than the obvious observation that such theory was mainly Marxist. Sartre and Camus were predictable, Foucault less so (a substantial presence in France, but more or less unknown in America). Judt appears to come from the political left himself, but nevertheless he seems not to have understood the basis of Foucault (which can be summed up, Deep Throat-like, as "follow the power.") In Foucaultian terms, the discourse of dissent (which Judt claims collapsed Communism) was something entirely dictated by the power relations existing at the time. He would have said look not at the surface, look at the constellations (a favorite Foucaultian term) of power. Any objective survey of the constellations of power existing in Europe in 1989 would center on the United States (and might still do so today, despite a united Germany, an expanded EU, and the absence of the Soviet threat.) In explaining the collapse of Communism, historical roads as diverse as euro-Marxism, macro¬-economics, empirical rationalism or even Great Man theory all lead to the same place: America. But according to Judt, Washington had nothing to do with it. By the final chapters, any pretense of objectivity has been lost. 9/11 was not a watershed horror for the free world, but a passing American event that by implication the US deserved for its Middle Eastern policy. (Of all European leaders since 1945, Judt reserves his strongest denunciation not for Stalin or Tito or Ceausescu, but for Tony Blair. Why? Blair supports American policy--"blindly," of course.) In summing up what (Judt thinks) binds Europeans together, it is "...contrast with `the American' way of life.' (p. 748) Lastly, not just the content but the style is likely to be tiresome to American readers. There is an overabundance of smug English circumlocutions and double-negatives: "It was not for nothing," "not perhaps terribly," and the like. Meaningless modifiers, such as "more than a little" and "decidedly," are used ad nauseum, so that the text sometimes reads like a student essay in which the author has tried padding it out to make the required number or words. Judt could learn from the great English historians of the past, of whom there are plenty, from Gibbon to Churchill. There is in POSTWAR none of their directness of language, that firm relentless empiricism which at its best ascends into epic prose, noble in conception and majestic in scope. It is what makes reading them such a pleasure, whatever they have to say. Reading Judt is just a chore. In the end this book, for all its size, is just a sour little pamphlet--an insult to the achievement that it purports to explain. It is the written equivalent of those old photographs of Soviet leaders gathered atop Lenin's Tomb on May Day, in which the images of the purged party members have been carefully airbrushed out--except that in POSTWAR, it is not just a party hack but the main player who is missing. POSTWAR is not even bad history, it is non-history, just anti-American propaganda dressed up as scholarship. It should sell well in France.

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