'The Middle Kingdoms' by Martyn Rady

Good day Hivers and Book Clubbers,

Let's get some more reviewing done. We get back to the realm of non-fiction for this one. Most of you probably noticed that a decent majority of the book I review aren't particularly recent. The recent review on Neill's Anglicanism was well over half a century old.

But the book I'm reviewing today was published this year. Its full title is 'The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe', written by Martyn Rady. I have read a book by Rady before, on the Habsburg dynasty. Since the Habsburg domains were mostly in central Europe, the two books have some overlap, which isn't strange; one can only specialise in so many fields at once. The book stands at about 500 pages, and it's a massive hardcover version, which isn't really ease to hold in your hands, but whatever. Let's get into it.

Helicopter View

The book stretches over vast amounts of spaces and time. To talk about the entirety of central Europe is a challenge. At one point, you're talking about the affairs of the Holy Roman Empire/Germany, the next you're somewhere in the Balkans or Poland. Also, the timeline starts at the Roman era, and ends in the current year.

Because of this, the book lacks depth; it touches on a LOT of topics, but can't spend more than a few pages on it. It simplifies the narratives and doesn't stray into specifics. It's great to get a helicopter view of things, but for people who are familiar with certain settings, it might be somewhat unsatisfying.

A story of invasions

Europe has had a long history of invasions, mostly from the east. Central Europe is, as befits the name, in the middle of things. There are groups or peoples that invade, and leave after a certain time. The most obvious example would be the Huns in the 5th century AD, raiding and battling as far westward as France, before a defeat in battle and the death of Attilla destabilizes their army and they return east. One could argue that the influence the Huns have on European history are mostly due to the groups they displaced (the Goths, the Franks) than they directly did themselves.

Some groups invade, and decide to stay in the process. The most obvious example here would be the Hungarians. A nomadic horse-people, they came into Europe in the 9th century, and would slowly settle in what is now known as the Hungarian plain in the following centuries, and so become a significant part of Central European history. This process of becoming sedentary lasted longer than you would expect. Travellers through Hungary in the 13th century still noted many in the countryside still lived in tents, and would move often.

A bit of a historical retcon

Since the book was finished in 2023, there is another invasion that Rady feels the need to address in the afterword; the war between Russia and Ukraine. Rady, as most Europeans, seems to favour the Ukrainian side, which is fine by itself. Everyone's entitled to their opinions.

But he forces it into the book in what I think is a wrong perspective. He tries to include almost the whole of the Ukraine intro 'Central Europe', backtracking current events into the 2000-year-spanning historical narrative.

I think he's dead wrong on this one. Ukraine is part of Eastern Europe. Look at a map; Kiev is not a central European city by any stretch of the imagination. And yet Rady goes on pretending it is, treating parts like the Hmelnitsky/Cossack rebellion of 1648. While this does take place within the context of Poland-Lithuania, it still is far-fetched.

The only part of Ukraine that can be considered Central European is the eastern part of Galicia, which is the western-most part of Ukraine. The biggest city in this area is Lviv, known as Lwow in Polish and Lemberg in German. It has all these names because it has been part of all groups over the centuries; part of Poland and later Poland-Lithuania, then part of Habsburg-Austria, and later on part of the Soviet Union.

Conclusion

Don't let my critique here fool you into thinking I consider this a bad book. Not at all. But this type of book does fuel the idea that history, and writing about history, is an art and not a science. Contemporary views change, and this book is very heavily influence by actualities and the political/societal views of the current 'modern' era.

It's a great place to get started; if you're completely unfamiliar with the history of this area and its peoples, the book gives you many threads to follow. In the back is an impressive selection of titles for further reading, some of which I've already got standing on my shelves.

I'll be back with more reviews in the future. There's still about 45 books on my shelf left unread, so I've still got a long way to go before I have to buy more. Though I'll probably end up buying more sooner rather than later. I'll see you all in the next installment,

-Pieter Nijmeijer

(Top image; self-made photo of book cover)