History book on Europe (events, historical, country, ally)

[alohali]

I want to know more about the history of Europe in the past few centuries. Any good books for recommendation?

[NJGOAT]

I would recommend Norman Davies book Europe: A History as a good a place as any to start. The book is broken down into 12 chapters that each cover a broad period of time. The book itself runs from post Ice Age to the Atomic Age, so it covers pretty much everything. It is also not country-centric, instead focusing on the continent as a whole and giving equal weight to events occurring everywhere. The book itself is really not much more than an outline though. It skims through history and events without giving exhaustive details as to the why, which is what most people studying history seek to know.

So, given your desires I think it would be a good place to start and then from there you can look for works that delve more deeply into specific events and time periods that piqued your interest.

[Baldrick]

If you want to have the information online i find this to be very useful with plenty of listed sources. The articles are very well written.

BBC - History

[lucknow]

If you wouls like to understand the forces and powers that have shaped Europe and the entire modern world I strongle recommend a series of books written by Upton Sinclair. It is called "The Lanny Budd series" and it's fantastic. Albert Einstein said, "Everything I know about the forces that shaped the modern world I learned form the Lanny Budd books. Because the books are historical ficton they are also very readable and enjoyable. You could have some difficulty finding them but they are out there if you look hard enough.