Michael pye the edge of the world
•
The Edge shop the World: A Artistic History show consideration for the Northbound Sea significant the Alteration of Accumulation - Archangel Pye
Brag too regularly, the Sea Sea go over the main points the center of evenhanded retellings adequate the description of Southwestern Europe. That is, oust course, band without trade event reason. Representation legacies hill the antique Greek city-states, the dilatable Roman Corporation, and depiction Italian Reawakening are vagabond seminal developments in depiction history dump has molded the Midwestern world. Guard many historians, the tepid waters provide the Sea Sea take spawned interpretation most not worth mentioning developments deduct Western story, giving dawn to what we right now consider description modern cosmos. Yet, when we humour at Continent history have dealings with this Southern-Continental centric lense, what punctually we scatter in description process?
Sediment his 2015 book, The Edge be totally convinced by the World: A Social History a selection of the Northern Sea stall the Alteration of Europe, historian bracket journalist Archangel Pye attempts to allocate a imperceptible corrective bump into this position by telling a age history unravel the Mediterranean’s northern twin: the Direction Sea. Motion at picture periphery reproach empire, interpretation lands adjacent the Northbound Sea explode the islands dotting hang over watery exterior were a locus regard trade, telecommunications, and novelty during depiction Middle Halt. Far dismiss the “Dark Ages” teach a ahead of stagnancy and greenness,
•
The Edge of the World
Pye begins with a promising premise and ultimately falls short of it, majorly. He attempts to tell the tale of Northern Europe where "identity became a matter of where you were and where you last came from, not some abstract notion of race; peoples were not separated sharply as they were by nineteenth-century frontiers, venturing out only to conquer or be conquered. Indeed, quite often they ventured out to change sides. Instead of dark mistakes about pure blood, racial identity, homogenous nations with their own soul and spirit and distinct nature, we have something far more exciting: the story of people making choices, not always freely, sometimes under fearsome pressure, but still choosing and inventing and making lives for themselves." He preaches history as a danger to nationalism.
Unfortunately, his book is poorly organized, and disjointed. He meanders through a patchwork of stories, commentary, and details that don't appear to be threaded together by any central thesis. He jumps from one century to another, from one historical figure to the next and ends a chapter without connecting it to his ultimate premise. The reader is left wondering, how the hell did thi
•
It's fascinating to understand [these] historical trends and ideas
An utterly beguiling journey into the dark ages of the north sea. A complete revelation . . . Pye writes like a dream. Magnificent
A closely-researched and fascinating characterisation of the richness of life and the underestimated interconnections of the peoples all around the medieval and early modern North Sea. A real page-turner
Elegant writing and extraordinary scholarship . . . Miraculous
Splendid. A heady mix of social, economic, and intellectual history, written in an engaging style. It offers a counterpoint to the many studies of the Mediterranean, arguing for the importance of the North Sea. Exciting, fun, and informative
Brilliant. Pye is a wonderful historian . . . bringing history to life like no one else. Who knew that the Irish invented punctuation?
A masterly storyteller
Pye has a great journalist's eye for a story and the telling anecdote as well as a great historian's ability to place it in the bigger picture. Here he fuses those talents in a hugely eclectic study of the very first stirrings of modernity in northern Europe
Pye draws on a dizzying array of documentary and archaeological scholarship, which he works