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Norman Davies

Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations Hardcover – January 5, 2012

by Norman Davies (Author)

4.3 575 ratings

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An evocative account of fourteen European kingdoms-their rise, maturity, and eventual disappearance.

There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Europe's past is littered with states and kingdoms, large and small, that are scarcely remembered today, and while their names may be unfamiliar-Aragon, Etruria, the Kingdom of the Two Burgundies-their stories should change our mental map of the past. We come across forgotten characters and famous ones-King Arthur and Macbeth, Napoleon and Queen Victoria, right up to Stalin and Gorbachev-and discover how faulty memory can be, and how much we can glean from these lost empires. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind.

This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from readers of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.

Print length

848 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Viking
Publication date

January 5, 2012
Dimensions

6.75 x 2 x 10 inches
ISBN-10

067002273X
ISBN-13

978-0670022731
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A dozen-plus examples from European history constitute this ruminative disquisition on the impermanence of polities. Struck by popular amnesia about the existence of his selections, some of which endured for centuries (although one, the Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine, lived but one day), Davies, from a traveler’s viewpoint, describes the contemporary appearance of each former state’s territory or principal city, then applies engrossing clarity to the history of its origin, ascent, and decline. Two states en route to expiration, Prussia and Savoy, left traces in contemporary Germany and Italy, but the rest are gone, submerged by dynastic politics, as were the duchy of Burgundy and the kingdom of Aragon, or hacked away and conquered by aggressive neighbors, as was the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Despite the subject of extinction, pessimism does not pervade Davies’ accounts, which detect a persistence of popular memory about each vanished state, encouraging advocates for its revival, as occurred in the cases of Poland and Lithuania. Having current relevance especially to the UK and Montenegro, Davies’ fascinating work harbors insights and discoveries for avid history readers. --Gilbert Taylor

Review

“Densely packed yet commendably accessible, magisterial and uncommonly humane.”—The Boston Globe

“Hugely ambitious . . . From the mists, Mr. Davies summons the kingdoms; he records their emergence, their flowering and their demise—whether by ‘internall diseases’ or ‘forraign warre’ in Thomas Hobbes’s words. And he examines the traces that the kingdoms have left behind, in works of art or a piece of rock or perhaps just a place name.”—Wall Street Journal

“Davies resurrects the lands and peoples that were lost in the brutal tide of history. . . . He is presenting knowledge gained over a long lifetime of research. It takes a tremendous feat of empathy to write a detailed tome about countries and peoples that no longer exist. And the amount of information in Vanished Kingdoms that will be new to all but the most expert students of European history is staggering. . . . Fascinating facts and insights flutter on its many pages.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“Davies has written short histories of 15 nations and states in a substantive volume that shows how so many past peoples have intertwined with the larger world and shaped it even after they are forgotten in the sands of time . . . an efficient, lively and important work, an outstanding addition to the histories of the human race.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Davies is well known as an iconoclast who punctures the comforting myths of countries that history has blessed . . . Vanished Kingdoms gives full rein to his historical imagination and enthusiasms, imparting a powerful sense of places lost in time. All across Europe ghosts will bless him for telling their long-forgotten stories.”—The Economist

“Davies performs autopsies of Europe’s cadaver-states, and like a skilled mortician he has a gift for making them appear lifelike. . . . There are wonders in this book worth discovering.”—The Nation

“Davies is certainly one of the best British historical writers of the past half century, and every gauntlet he throws down is bejeweled. His literary gifts and his capacity for what he nicely calls ‘imaginative sympathy’ are stretched to their limits by this challenging project. . . . Yet Davies succeeds, and it is quite a success.”—Timothy Snyder, The Guardian

“Brilliant . . . Davies asks us to contemplate European history in an entirely different way, seeing the map as a shifting patchwork of claims and identities, its complexion always changing, some states dying, others making unexpected revivals. . . . Vanished Kingdoms is distinguished by his extraordinary intellectual ambition and lovely eye for detail.”—Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times (London)

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking; Reprint edition (January 5, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 848 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 067002273X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670022731
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.61 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 2 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #703,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #229 in Historical Essays (Books)
- #9,443 in European History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 575 ratings

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Norman Davies

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Norman Davies C. M. G., F. B. A. is Professor Emeritus of the University of London, a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and the author of several books on Polish and European history, including God's Playground, White Eagle, Red Star, The Isles, Europe, and Microcosm.

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Caleb Hanson

Very long, very uneven

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2012

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This book is a survey, an anthology of histories of a dozen-plus European states that aren't on the map anymore, although some of them have "vanished" more than others. Each chapter is divided in three parts: Part I describes some European tourist destination (the beaches of Bornholm, say, or the Estivales of Perpignan; some of the sites in Eastern Europe, like Belarus and Kaliningrad, might be better described as tourist *anti*-destinations); Part II, the main section of each, tells the history of this chapter's state; Part III goes off on some sort of history-related tangent, musing about nationalism and national identity, state sponsorship of museums and archives, quality of historical sources, language, etc.

The chapters are very uneven: some are just what it says on the box, good, straightforward histories of vanished realms, like the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The chapters on Burgundy and Prussia are even more interesting, tracing the history of a name that changes geographic location over time and is sometimes a nation, sometimes a tribe, a dynasty, or some other entity, but always with some continuity from incarnation to incarnation. Some have little justification for counting them as sovereign states, kingdom or otherwise, ever in their history, like Galicia or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Some, like Montenegro or Éire, aren't vanished at all! And a couple of chapters are just strange: the chapter on the Byzantine Empire doesn't cover the history of the Empire but the historiography, not what happened but how later ages wrote about it; and the chapter titled "CCCP" is really the history of Estonia, only Part III covers the breakup of the Soviet Union.

At the end is a short epilogue, "How States Die," wherein Davies sets out a theory of how and why states disappear and disintegrate, which is easily the most new and interesting part of the book, and which does explain why he included some of the entries which otherwise just don't seem to belong. It is a great pity that, being at the end of such a long sequence of uneven chapters, a lot of readers will never get to it.

I can't really recommend the book as a whole, it's just too long and the quality is too uneven. Much better to read just the introduction and the epilogue, and then skim individual entries which interest you. But even then, there's a major caveat: any book that tells me with a straight face in Chapter 1 that the "starting point of Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth" is "the 'Holy Mountain' of Bugarach" in southern France, is just setting itself up for major problems of credibility for the rest of its 800 pages! (Hello? "In Sneffels Yoculis craterem," and all of chapters 9-17?)

10 people found this helpful

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Robert Mosher

Vanished Kingdoms Pierces the Veil

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017

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History is big, messy, layered, and complicated as you might expect if you think about how big and complicated the human race can be. You may have thought those history texts you used at school were big and complicated, but historian Norman Davies’ Vanished Kingdoms will amaze you at some of the stories they skipped over. Author Davies proves just how complicated and messy with In 739 pages and 15 chapters. “Vanished Kingdoms” offers a grand tour of ancient Scotland, Burgundia, Aragon, Litva, Byzantion, Borussia, Sabauda (Italy), Galicia, Etruria (Bonaparte’s Italy), Rosenau (Saxe-Coburg), Tsernagora (aka Montenegro), Rusyn (Ruthenia), Eire, and the USSR. The list of vanished states, kingdoms included several new to me or simply not covered in my own studies. I found myself wishing more than once that he had written this book when I was at university as I would have been better informed about several modern countries and regions for which I was responsible as an American diplomat and bureaucrat! A few of his stories also crossed paths with those of my ancestors uncovered via DNA testing and genealogical research, which made those chapters especially interesting.
Written with a scholarly mindset, this is not a text of dry prose as the author enlivens even the most dust laden elements of his narrative. Norman Davies supports and illustrates his well-written narrations with 14 dynastic family trees, 74 maps, and 82 illustrations. There is no separate bibliography but he includes bibliographic information in the text and 49 pages of end notes also fulfill that role. This was actually my first book of the author’s but I enjoyed it so much and learned so much from it that I’ve already picked up another of his books looking to continue the journey. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in knowing more about what contributed to modern Europe.

17 people found this helpful

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Bart Brodowski

A Truly Unique Work

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2012

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This has to be the one of the most interesting and enjoyable historical works that I have read in many years. Why? Here are the reasons:

1) Norman's writing style is a pleasure to read. It is witty and elegant, and very colorful. Of all the chapters in this book only the ones on Burdundy and Aragon seemed a bit dry, mainly because there was SO MUCH information being thrown about.

2) It is full of fascinating and little-know facts. For history trivia buffs, this book is a must. Norman seems at home no matter which kingdom he writes about, and the reader gets the feeling that he actually understands all the complex social, personal and economic reasons behind the events.

3) Deep. The chapters that deal with lands taken over by the communists show the full tragedy of the people and their once-great history. Norman shows us that there was once something beautiful and civilized there before the Russians\Soviets\communists came, and does not spare the reader his opinions on the matter.

4) Varied. Every chapter is different and has a unique spin on it. The one on Celtic Scotland, for example, deals with identity. The one on Borussia challenges both official German histories of the region (i.e. their obvious pro-German spin) as well as later anti-German versions as well (colored by anti-German sentiment after both World Wars). The one on Litva is very emotional, appropriately so.

5) Perfectly partitioned. Only a couple of the chapters seemed a bit too long, and only one was not long enough (on Byzantium). Everything else seemed just right - perfect combination of musing, information, conclusions, and length.

Overall, I am very pleased with the book and recommend it to fans of his previous works, and to amateur and professional historians alike. Those who enjoy medieval history should be most pleased, since almost every chapter deals with some aspect of it.

12 people found this helpful

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A. C. Jiménez

Buen libro

Reviewed in Spain on November 13, 2019

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Me han gustado los contenidos, la calidad y el aspecto del libro. Pero echo de menos más información sobre algunos reinos medievales (alanos, suevos y vándalos en la España medieval o algo de información sobre la Rus de Kiev por ejemplo ).

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Kush Sengupta

Episodic history of various "forgotten" kingdoms

Reviewed in India on August 11, 2018

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Panoramic history of various European kingdoms that have vanished. each chapter is an autonomous chalter. The author does not make an overarching thesis, rather they are individual case studies. The sweep of history is vast, and thousand years of history is compressed into each chapter. the effect is not always pleasing , especially it creates a sense read with generations across history bearing same first names.

2 people found this helpful

David Morton

Great concept, but a bit long-winded

Reviewed in Australia on November 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

The concept for this book is really clever, and Norman Davies writes on it with clear expertise and enthusiasm. However, I found it dragged a bit in places - it doesn't quite earn its length. Perhaps it would be better to dip in and out of the several largely self-contained stories, rather than read it all the way through.

Fulvio

Bel saggio di storia

Reviewed in Italy on July 27, 2016

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Nello stile degli storici anglosassoni, che scrivono sempre per farsi capire e non soltanto per altri addetti ai lavori, Davies affronta il tema, non usuale, dei cd. "regni scomparsi", cioè di quegli stati europei che hanno avuto periodi, anche lunghi (si pensi al regno di Polonia-Lituania) di grande rilevanza nel panorama europeo per poi scomparire o essere assorbiti in altri stati, a volte per una serie di avvenimenti causali, a volte per l'azione di governanti più abili.
La prospettiva è diacronica, quindi si passa dal regno dei Visigoti alla Savoia alla Lituania o alla Prussia, ma lo stile è godibile e l'uso delle fonti, anche se non ingombrante, valido.
Rimane qualche perplessità su alcune scelte, che non sempre l'autore chiarisce completamente.
Comunque, una buona e interessante lettura.

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tristan ranx

Les royaumes qui disparaissent en une seule nuit

Reviewed in France on November 8, 2015

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Un ouvrage remarquable qui explore les zones grises de l'histoire européenne, on regrettera cependant la quasi absence de la régence du Carnaro de la ville de Fiume entre 1919 et 1921. Ce livre doit se lire comme une histoire du temps long et la fin de toute certitude vis à vis de la pérennité de nos nations contemporaines. L'exemple le plus significatif est ce jour de 1991, quand le plus vaste et le plus puissant Empire de la terre a subitement disparu des cartes de géographie pour ne plus jamais réapparaître. Il a suffit d'une seule et dernière nuit, pour qu'au matin, l'Union Soviétique ait été effacé de la surface du monde.

2 people found this helpful

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