Vanished Kingdoms: The Rise and Fall of States and Nations

There is something profoundly romantic about the concept of lost civilizations. It brings to mind images of exotic empires, but some of these vanished kingdoms are much closer to home than we imagine. In this brilliant work of historical reconstruction, Norman Davies brings back to life the Kingdom of the Rock, founded by ancient Bristons when neither England nor Scotland existed, the empire of Aragon, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, among others, and he tells the story of Prussia, in whose turbulent past some have seen the seeds of German militarism. From the rise of the Visigoths to the decline of the Soviet Union, Vanished Kingdoms is a pathbreaking history of Europe that subverts our established view of the past and urges us to reconsider the causes of the rise and fall of nations.