The Culture of the Europeans: From 1800 to the Present

by Donald Sassoon

Compelling, wide-ranging, and hugely ambitious, this book offers an integrated history of the culture produced and consumed by Europeans since 1800, and follows its transformation from an elite activity to a mass market—from lending libraries to the internet, from the first public concerts to music downloads. In itself a cultural tour de force, the book covers high and low culture, readers and writers, audiences and prima donnas, Rossini and hip hop, Verdi and the Beatles, Zola and Tintin, Walter Scott and Jules Verne, the serialized novel of the 19th century as well as Dallas and Coronation Street . Included in its vast scope are fairy tales, best-sellers, crime and sci-fi, non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, comic strips, plays, opera, musicals, pop music, sound recording, films, documentaries, radio, and television. A continent-wide survey, this majestic work includes discussions of rock music under communism, Polish and Danish bestsellers, French melodramas and German cabarets, fascist and Soviet cinema. It examines the ways culture travels—how it is produced, transformed, adapted, absorbed, sold, and consumed; how it is shaped by audiences and politics, and controlled by laws and conventional morality; and why some countries excel in particular genres. It examines the anxiety and attraction felt by Europeans towards American culture, and asks to what extent European culture has become Americanized. Stylishly written, devoid of jargon, this is global non-fiction narrative at its best.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cultural, European History

1656 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Donald Sassoon is Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a humongous book and I read it off and on over about two years I think. The last section, from the birth of the cinema on, I didn't find very interesting, perhaps due to its familiarity and there were a lot of statistics in this section which I found excessive. However, the sections relating with earlier periods I found very interesting. The chapters dealing with literature were particularly interesting.

[Fred Garnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only 200 pages in of 1700 but this is a wonderfully detailed view of culture across Europe from before the birth of printing in the 14th century but especially about the consequences of printing and (mass culture). I might be reading it for another year or two but I've already learnt much more than I usually do from nearly every non-fiction book I have read.

[Despina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A valuable guide to the European culture of the past centuries. It is so well written, that captures your interest like a novel, enjoying all the little cultural details. A real authorial feat.

[Jigglypuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This seems to be a good comparative review of European culture that is a very nice overview of 200 years of culture and how it came to be that way.