never again, Norman

I did a really stupid thing over Christmas: I bought a Norman Davies book.  I compounded that error over the weekend by reading it.

It was the Vanished Kingdoms book, the one about European states that didn’t quite make it. I mean, that’s a great idea for a book. So is a book on European history that pushes the centre of gravity eastward. So is a history of Breslau/Wroclaw as a cosmopolitan enclave. And yeah, I’ll take another chunky Warsaw uprising history. I don’t know why I bought The Isles. I used to go to Waterstones after lunchtime sessions in the pub. That may have been it.

This is why I do it, keep handing my own money over to Norman Davies and his publishers. You get these really great, engaging ideas and they carry you so far into the book before you notice that you’re having a really horrible experience, a sort of history as bulimia: facts, factoids, anecdotes all gobbled down together without discrimination  and then honked up in a great foetid mass. As storytelling goes, as a narrative history of events, it’s like watching someone retrace their steps to the pub by following the piles of sick they left on the pavement last night. Compounding that is his talent for the irrelevant anecdote and the boring detail; the way in which google is his friend and counsellor, but not a very knowledgeable one. Why, here’s a folk song. Here is a brief, but nonetheless all too long, account of local geological formations. And here is something that appears to come from a Chamber of commerce press release, or perhaps a brochure he saved when he visited the Kaliningrad tourist authorities. The cranky transferred Polish nationalism has also gone beyond charming. Have I told you how evil the Russians are? Very evil. That’s how evil. 

Anyway, this is an aide memoire. Never again. Norman, you’re history. Crap history.

Comments

[Igor Belanov]

It's like your first essay as a fresher: "Davies, it's full of information and narrative, but where's the analysis?"

I agree that 'Microcosm' should have been a really good book, but the random facts and repeated moralising just marred the whole thing.

[Richard J]

Now this, Comrade Kenny, is a fairly transparent attempt at distraction from one of the few sources prepared to admit the truth about your ancestor's treason, isn't it? Proper Sov-era black propaganda.

[Richard J]

But yes; like so many things, the idea of his books is far better than the execution. I have the original hardback of Europe: A History. Somewhere else, I forget where, I have seen the errata list for that edition. Which means I can't rely at all on the miscellany of information which forms, what, 1/6th of it for no good reason.

His book on WW2 was a bit crap and all, compared to Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands, which made the same basic point but in a much more astute and restrained way.

[leinad]

The curmudgeonry was amazing: swiping at Isaac Asimov, stopping mid-flight to quibble with a single line of Iron Kingdom, berating Orhan Pamuk for excluding the Glorious Byzantine Past from his books set in... modern Turkey.

Though I did learn that Ben Bella was ousted from Tunisia in 2010, so that's something.

[sf reader]

To all and sundry - any recommendations for histories of the Hanseatic league? Thanks in advance.

[Strategist]

Harsh. I'm a Norm man myself.

Vanished Kingdoms I thought good stuff, maybe a bit light for the seasoned pro, but pitched pretty well for the rest of us.

I'll give you that the pro-Polish anti-Russian stuff has gone a bit far, but I think he has rather a lot of Polish Academy medals to live up to...

[chris y]

I'm inclined to agree with Jamie. I made the same mistake, and the bits I knew anything about struck me as slightly dodgy on the old accuracy, which made me wonder about the rest of it. I thought it was slightly better than The Isles, but that's probably because I know less about the subject matter and so spend less time screaming, "No! That's rubbish you fool!" at my kindle.

[des von bladet]

sf reader: How's your German? If you're looking for something in English and in print, AFAIK you're out of luck.

[jamie]

Yeah: only things I can think of in English deal with the Hansa as a secondary issue in the Northern Crusades or 30 year swar.

[bert]

I quite liked dipping in and out of his Europe book. But Richard hits on exactly the right word - it's Schott's Miscellany.

Not sure I agree with "restrained" about Bloodlands, though. Attritional, more like.