Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire 1st Edition

Having had a long-time fascination with the Holy Roman Empire and having picked up some knowledge of the HRE through my readings Medieval and Modern European history in general and church history in particular, I was excited to come across Peter Wilson's "Heart of Europe," which is subtitled "A History of the Holy Roman Empire." At last an in-depth study of the HRE, which would serve to fill in the gaps that existed in my understanding of this fascinating entity that had lasted the better part of 1006 years. Having now read the entire work, I can say that I came away with a lot of factual information about the HRE that was not in my head before, and I'm thankful for that. Indeed, since I was expecting primarily a political history, I learned many things about the HRE that I had not anticipated learning, since Wilson's tome is far more than a political history, but treats in depth issues such as the relationships between the different classes of rulers (emperor, kings, electors, etc.), some economic history, demographics, and the like. And I am happy for any increase in my mental information bank. But because each of these issues are treated separately from one another (in separate chapters) and are not adequately integrated into an overall historical framework, I still don't have the sort of framework in which to place all these facts, a framework that I was hoping this work would provide, and it may have provided, had it been organized chronologically.It is true that as part of the back material, there is a chronological description of the highlights of the history of the HRE. And having this at one's fingertips might have helped in setting the otherwise disparate facts found in the book in some sort of context. And had I ordered a print copy of this book the chronology may have saved the day had I been willing to flip back and forth between the body of the text and the chronology. The problem is that I ordered a Kindle copy, and it's just not as easy to keep flipping back and forth as it is with a print copy. Moreover, and I must admit that some of the fault is mine here, I tend to skim or ignore the table of contents of a book in my desire to get on with reading it. As a result, I didn't even know that there was a chronology as part of the back matter until I had read the entire text and was beginning to go through the appendices. And so, I didn't discover the chronology until it was too late to be of much help.So, my advice is this: If you are already intimately familiar with the history of the HRE, this book will probably prove valuable, since it contains information not readily available elsewhere. However, if you're looking for an overview of the HRE, this is not the place to start.

This was a chore. The Empire was an extremely complicated organization and unfortunately Wilson has not made it any easier to understand. Rather than a history, he examines how the Empire was perceived and functioned and the structure he uses leaves the general reader, at least this general reader baffled much of the time.I've read reviews that Wilson has no structure. That is not true; it is a structure that he lays out in clear terms in his introduction. Basically there are four sections each of three chapters discussing one aspect of the Empire. Part 1 looks at how the Empire was perceived by outsiders and by itself, Part 2 examines the physical makeup of its constituent parts, Part 3 looks at how it was governed, and Part 4 looks at the social history. Each Part digs deep into a single aspect of that section's subject. And therein lies the problem. This structure means Wilson goes over the chronology over and over and over but with no real framework for that chronology. Thus I found it very very hard to place what he is talking about at any given moment into any context with the other aspects the book covers. Even the emperors themselves became nothing but a blur of Ottos, Conrads,and Fredericks covering a thousand years of history.Wilson knows his subject cold and you can't help but learn about the history of central Europe in reading this book and for that reason alone I give this three stars rather than only one or two. But I cannot say I enjoyed reading this; for me, coming to this history with little more knowledge of the Holy Roman Empire than that it wasn't holy, roman or an empire, this was just work.

Incredibly detailed, perhaps too detailed for a casual reader, Wilson illuminates an under-appreciated chapter in European history. It explains a lot about the Western development of property rights, jurisprudence and conflict resolution that continues to have influence to this day in both Europe and to some extent North America. The US founding fathers would have been aware of much of this history and the US Constitution's safeguards would have been influenced by the struggles of the "Empire".Importantly, Wilson outlines how prior history's of the "Empire" projected back in time reasoning and conventions that did not exist at earlier points in time and this tome should set the record straight. It is destined to be the definitive work on the "Empire".

Received my pre-ordered copy a few days ago + am almost half-way through, and I've already learned an enormous amount. Before Mr Wilson's work, i never understood much about the Holy Roman Empire and this fine book is no less then a masterpiece. I read "Germany and the Holy Roman Empire volumes I & II", Oxford University Press, by Joachim Whaley, 2012 about a year ago, and they're also very good, but Mr Wilson's book has a different nuance with an extremely helpful chronology at the end and a spate of instructive maps at the beginning. Magnificently written for someone who loves European history. Make this superb volume part of your library.

As described. Thank you

É um excelente livro! Superou minhas expectativas! Texto rico com ilustrações belíssimas! Indicado a todos que se interessem pelo tema.

Muy buen libro. Pone todo en contexto y la narrativa es muy fluida. Abarca mucho pero justo eso es lo que necesitas para entender mejor la causalidad de la historia.

Excellent