A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin
by Simon Jenkins (Viking, £25)
War and peace, strife and stability: these are the patterns chartered through Simon Jenkins’s new investigation of Europe’s past, which ranges from the Minoan civilisations of 2500BC to the EU referendum vote in June 2016—and beyond. Jenkins takes the long view because, as he argues, “history acquires meaning only if we can see effect following cause over time.” Along the way he builds an engrossing aerial view of a continent now home to nearly 750m people.