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The Baltic
A compelling new history of the Baltic region—including some of the European community's newest member states and most dynamic economies.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
28 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Alan Warwick Palmer
78 books24 followersAuthor also writes under Alan Palmer
Alan Palmer was Head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969, when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research.
Alan Palmer was Head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969, when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 7, 2021
The Baltic Sea is cold, but its history has often run red-hot, as historian Alan Palmer makes clear in his book The Baltic. Palmer, a prolific, Oxford-educated British historian, wishes to give the 21st-century reader A New History of the Region and Its People (the book’s subtitle). He does so in a thorough and conscientious manner, covering the Baltic region’s history from the earliest known human habitation through the year 2004.
The Baltic region, as Palmer defines it, comprises the modern nations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Russia, as well as all of the no-longer-extant societies that once occupied Baltic shores – places like Pomerania, East Prussia, Courland, and Livonia. Palmer writes history in a relatively old-school style, with an emphasis on political and military conflict, and after a while one Great Northern War may sound like another.
Yet Palmer knows how to tell a story with verve and detail, as when he describes the extraordinary circumstances under which Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703. It was a planned capital unlike any other – “built on swampy ground by forced labour that cost the lives of at least 30,000 men…in newly conquered territory at the height of a war in which the odds remained heavily stacked against their country” (p. 132).
I have a particular interest in Finland, and in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. For me, therefore, the most interesting parts of the book were those that focused upon the 20th century and after. Finland and the Baltic States gained their independence from the Russian Empire amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution and the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that officially took revolutionary Soviet Russia out of the First World War. Parker describes the circumstances of the 1918 ceremony in which the Soviets recognized Finnish independence:
A Finnish diplomat noted in his diary that as both heads of government cordially shook hands, Lenin asked jocularly, “Are you satisfied now?”, to which [Finnish leader Pehr Evind] Svinhufvud mumbled his thanks. His expression of gratitude may well have lacked conviction, for at fifty-seven Svinhufvud was too versed in politics to harbour illusions over Soviet intentions. (p. 276)
And indeed, Soviet intentions toward Finland and the Baltic States during the post-World War I years were anything but friendly. Finland, through its heroic resistance during the Winter War of 1939-40, barely maintained its independence from Stalin’s expansion-minded U.S.S.R. The Baltic States were not so lucky, suffering occupation and incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940. Poland ended up being divided between the Soviets and the Nazis, through a secret provision of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact – something that the Polish leadership of the time may not have anticipated.
It seems clear, in that connection, that Palmer is drawing from his own life experience and observation when he writes about Polish leader Joseph Beck visiting the British Prime Minister in March of 1939: “A twelve-year-old schoolboy happened to be in Downing Street as the Polish statesman’s car turned into the Foreign Office that morning; the contented superiority of Beck’s cold smile remains etched in memory even today” (p. 318). We all know now that, sadly enough, within six months after that London visit, neither Beck nor any other Polish leader would have had anything to smile about.
And perhaps because I was reading The Baltic while traveling in the Baltic States, seeing the former KGB headquarters sites in Tallinn and Vilnius, I was particularly moved by Palmer’s description of the manner in which Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained their freedom from Soviet occupation. Most famously, in a gesture that won the world’s attention and sympathy – and that is memorialized to this day throughout the three republics – “on the fiftieth anniversary of the [Molotov-Ribbentrop] pact, two million people joined hands to form the ‘Baltic Way,’ a 600-kilometre human chain that linked Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius in a call for independence” (p. 394). In spite of Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to hold the U.S.S.R. together, the Baltic States gained their independence within a couple of years.
A number of the questions that Palmer poses at the end of this 2005-06 book seem downright prescient now, in 2014, given the present political situation in parts of Eastern Europe: “Have the Baltic republics the wisdom and patience to integrate their Russian and Ukrainian minorities? What future has the Baltic if a Russian nationalist comes to power in Moscow? Is the bear tamed or merely sleeping?” (p. 406) I hope that Palmer is right when he suggests that “it is reasonable…to be optimistic” (p. 406), though Vladimir Putin’s ongoing acts of aggression throughout various parts of the former Soviet Union continue to be a cause of concern. It is no wonder to me that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania hastened to join NATO and the European Union, as soon as it was possible for them to do so.
Palmer’s The Baltic contains three helpful maps, but might have benefited from illustrations such as paintings or photographs of different people or events involved in the history of the Baltic. (The photograph on the cover, of Helsinki harbour on a long winter night, is a nice touch.) Still, for any reader interested in this important region of Europe, The Baltic is a thorough, detailed, and helpful study.
The Baltic region, as Palmer defines it, comprises the modern nations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Russia, as well as all of the no-longer-extant societies that once occupied Baltic shores – places like Pomerania, East Prussia, Courland, and Livonia. Palmer writes history in a relatively old-school style, with an emphasis on political and military conflict, and after a while one Great Northern War may sound like another.
Yet Palmer knows how to tell a story with verve and detail, as when he describes the extraordinary circumstances under which Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg in 1703. It was a planned capital unlike any other – “built on swampy ground by forced labour that cost the lives of at least 30,000 men…in newly conquered territory at the height of a war in which the odds remained heavily stacked against their country” (p. 132).
I have a particular interest in Finland, and in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. For me, therefore, the most interesting parts of the book were those that focused upon the 20th century and after. Finland and the Baltic States gained their independence from the Russian Empire amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution and the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that officially took revolutionary Soviet Russia out of the First World War. Parker describes the circumstances of the 1918 ceremony in which the Soviets recognized Finnish independence:
A Finnish diplomat noted in his diary that as both heads of government cordially shook hands, Lenin asked jocularly, “Are you satisfied now?”, to which [Finnish leader Pehr Evind] Svinhufvud mumbled his thanks. His expression of gratitude may well have lacked conviction, for at fifty-seven Svinhufvud was too versed in politics to harbour illusions over Soviet intentions. (p. 276)
And indeed, Soviet intentions toward Finland and the Baltic States during the post-World War I years were anything but friendly. Finland, through its heroic resistance during the Winter War of 1939-40, barely maintained its independence from Stalin’s expansion-minded U.S.S.R. The Baltic States were not so lucky, suffering occupation and incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940. Poland ended up being divided between the Soviets and the Nazis, through a secret provision of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact – something that the Polish leadership of the time may not have anticipated.
It seems clear, in that connection, that Palmer is drawing from his own life experience and observation when he writes about Polish leader Joseph Beck visiting the British Prime Minister in March of 1939: “A twelve-year-old schoolboy happened to be in Downing Street as the Polish statesman’s car turned into the Foreign Office that morning; the contented superiority of Beck’s cold smile remains etched in memory even today” (p. 318). We all know now that, sadly enough, within six months after that London visit, neither Beck nor any other Polish leader would have had anything to smile about.
And perhaps because I was reading The Baltic while traveling in the Baltic States, seeing the former KGB headquarters sites in Tallinn and Vilnius, I was particularly moved by Palmer’s description of the manner in which Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained their freedom from Soviet occupation. Most famously, in a gesture that won the world’s attention and sympathy – and that is memorialized to this day throughout the three republics – “on the fiftieth anniversary of the [Molotov-Ribbentrop] pact, two million people joined hands to form the ‘Baltic Way,’ a 600-kilometre human chain that linked Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius in a call for independence” (p. 394). In spite of Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to hold the U.S.S.R. together, the Baltic States gained their independence within a couple of years.
A number of the questions that Palmer poses at the end of this 2005-06 book seem downright prescient now, in 2014, given the present political situation in parts of Eastern Europe: “Have the Baltic republics the wisdom and patience to integrate their Russian and Ukrainian minorities? What future has the Baltic if a Russian nationalist comes to power in Moscow? Is the bear tamed or merely sleeping?” (p. 406) I hope that Palmer is right when he suggests that “it is reasonable…to be optimistic” (p. 406), though Vladimir Putin’s ongoing acts of aggression throughout various parts of the former Soviet Union continue to be a cause of concern. It is no wonder to me that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania hastened to join NATO and the European Union, as soon as it was possible for them to do so.
Palmer’s The Baltic contains three helpful maps, but might have benefited from illustrations such as paintings or photographs of different people or events involved in the history of the Baltic. (The photograph on the cover, of Helsinki harbour on a long winter night, is a nice touch.) Still, for any reader interested in this important region of Europe, The Baltic is a thorough, detailed, and helpful study.
July 17, 2014
The Baltic Sea is cold, but its history has often run red-hot, as historian Alan Palmer makes clear in his book The Baltic. Palmer, a prolific, Oxford-educated British historian, wishes to give the 21st-century reader A New History of the Region and Its People (the book’s subtitle). He does so in a thorough and conscientious manner, covering the Baltic region’s history from the earliest known human habitation through the year 2004.
The Baltic region, as Palmer defines it, comprises the modern nations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia, as well as all of the no-longer-extant societies that once occupied Baltic shores – places like Pomerania, East Prussia, Courland, and Livonia. Palmer writes history in a relatively old-school style, with an emphasis on political and military conflict, and after a while one Great Northern War may sound like another. Yet Palmer knows how to tell a story with verve and detail, as when he describes the extraordinary circumstances under which Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg, a planned capital unlike any other, “built on swampy ground by forced labour that cost the lives of at least 30,000 men…in newly conquered territory at the height of a war in which the odds remained heavily stacked against their country” (p. 132).
For me, the most interesting parts of the book were those that focused upon the 20th century, the two World Wars, and the Cold War. It is clear that Palmer is talking about his own experience and observation when he writes about Polish leader Joseph Beck visiting the British Prime Minister in March of 1939: “A twelve-year-old schoolboy happened to be in Downing Street as the Polish statesman’s car turned into the Foreign Office that morning; the contented superiority of Beck’s cold smile remains etched in memory even today” (p. 318). And perhaps because I was reading The Baltic while traveling in the Baltic States, seeing the former KGB headquarters sites in Tallinn and Vilnius, I was particularly moved by Palmer’s description of the manner in which Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained their freedom from Soviet occupation as “[t]he Baltic way of winning independence” (p. 400).
A number of the questions that Palmer poses at the end of this 2005-06 book seem downright prescient now, in 2014, given the present political situation in parts of Eastern Europe: “Have the Baltic republics the wisdom and patience to integrate their Russian and Ukrainian minorities? What future has the Baltic if a Russian nationalist comes to power in Moscow? Is the bear tamed or merely sleeping?” (p. 406) I hope that Palmer is right when he suggests that “it is reasonable…to be optimistic” (p. 406), and I do agree with him that “A Baltic that is at peace with itself holds out for Europe the prospect of unity and understanding” (p. 406). I just hope that Vladimir Putin gets that memo – and that he passes it on to the individuals currently styling themselves the “Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Alan Palmer’s The Baltic contains three helpful maps, but might have benefited from illustrations such as paintings or photographs of different people or events involved in the history of the Baltic. (The photograph on the cover, of Helsinki harbor on a long winter night, is a nice touch.) Still, for any reader interested in this important region of Europe, The Baltic is a thorough, detailed, and helpful study.
The Baltic region, as Palmer defines it, comprises the modern nations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia, as well as all of the no-longer-extant societies that once occupied Baltic shores – places like Pomerania, East Prussia, Courland, and Livonia. Palmer writes history in a relatively old-school style, with an emphasis on political and military conflict, and after a while one Great Northern War may sound like another. Yet Palmer knows how to tell a story with verve and detail, as when he describes the extraordinary circumstances under which Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg, a planned capital unlike any other, “built on swampy ground by forced labour that cost the lives of at least 30,000 men…in newly conquered territory at the height of a war in which the odds remained heavily stacked against their country” (p. 132).
For me, the most interesting parts of the book were those that focused upon the 20th century, the two World Wars, and the Cold War. It is clear that Palmer is talking about his own experience and observation when he writes about Polish leader Joseph Beck visiting the British Prime Minister in March of 1939: “A twelve-year-old schoolboy happened to be in Downing Street as the Polish statesman’s car turned into the Foreign Office that morning; the contented superiority of Beck’s cold smile remains etched in memory even today” (p. 318). And perhaps because I was reading The Baltic while traveling in the Baltic States, seeing the former KGB headquarters sites in Tallinn and Vilnius, I was particularly moved by Palmer’s description of the manner in which Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained their freedom from Soviet occupation as “[t]he Baltic way of winning independence” (p. 400).
A number of the questions that Palmer poses at the end of this 2005-06 book seem downright prescient now, in 2014, given the present political situation in parts of Eastern Europe: “Have the Baltic republics the wisdom and patience to integrate their Russian and Ukrainian minorities? What future has the Baltic if a Russian nationalist comes to power in Moscow? Is the bear tamed or merely sleeping?” (p. 406) I hope that Palmer is right when he suggests that “it is reasonable…to be optimistic” (p. 406), and I do agree with him that “A Baltic that is at peace with itself holds out for Europe the prospect of unity and understanding” (p. 406). I just hope that Vladimir Putin gets that memo – and that he passes it on to the individuals currently styling themselves the “Donetsk People’s Republic.”
Alan Palmer’s The Baltic contains three helpful maps, but might have benefited from illustrations such as paintings or photographs of different people or events involved in the history of the Baltic. (The photograph on the cover, of Helsinki harbor on a long winter night, is a nice touch.) Still, for any reader interested in this important region of Europe, The Baltic is a thorough, detailed, and helpful study.
May 1, 2018
A concise but "packed" history of the Baltic area (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Poland and their ancestors) from bronze age to through Gorbachev. Plugs many holes in US public school education which has never devoted much time to the area or its peoples due to an Anglo-centric bias of long standing. Fascinating in parts, informative always, this is a good general reference. From the Teutonic Nights to the holocaust in Vilnius, I recommend it.
September 15, 2025
DNF (2021)
I tried my hardest. But, trying to bite off way too much than I could chew / it was written... terribly :D Or maybe I just have higher expectations for historical story tellers.
And because I think telling the story of a region that has sooo many different peoples is... not an easy feat. I should find a Lithuanian history. This book tried to tell the story of the entire sea that somehow included turkey
FINISHED! 2025 - I picked this one up again to be my gym book. And it took some hard slog through some of it but ultimately giving this book a second chance has been incredible. So between sets at the gym I would read a few pages at a time. Sometimes these pages would be name after name after numbers of people in an army fought at a battle named after a town that no longer exists followed by more names. It was dry AF and I could not care less.
Other pages would be a fascinating insight into how trade was manipulated, or how certain blood lines were all mixed in and when war happened it was just because a cousin wanted to kill his uncle for.... reasons. and then 10,000 people died and trade stopped for a little bit.
and then one leader would do really good things and then his son would be a raving lunatic. Some countries would try collective government and then napoleon would be like. nah F this lets just conquer some stuff.
And there lies the weirdest part. How interconnected seemingly disparate kingdoms were. Napoleon famously not from the baltics, ran his huge army through the city i live, deep into the baltics. Denmark, known in modern times as the gateway to scandinavia - is physically the gateway to the baltic sea. AND st petersberg also... baltic port. So trading between these and britain and etc etc is very much a baltic issue.
And so me, thinking this was a history of the baltic clans like the semogitians, gets actually a much larger understanding of europe. This was a very good book. I am glad I slogged through the dry parts.
good job Alan.
I tried my hardest. But, trying to bite off way too much than I could chew / it was written... terribly :D Or maybe I just have higher expectations for historical story tellers.
And because I think telling the story of a region that has sooo many different peoples is... not an easy feat. I should find a Lithuanian history. This book tried to tell the story of the entire sea that somehow included turkey
FINISHED! 2025 - I picked this one up again to be my gym book. And it took some hard slog through some of it but ultimately giving this book a second chance has been incredible. So between sets at the gym I would read a few pages at a time. Sometimes these pages would be name after name after numbers of people in an army fought at a battle named after a town that no longer exists followed by more names. It was dry AF and I could not care less.
Other pages would be a fascinating insight into how trade was manipulated, or how certain blood lines were all mixed in and when war happened it was just because a cousin wanted to kill his uncle for.... reasons. and then 10,000 people died and trade stopped for a little bit.
and then one leader would do really good things and then his son would be a raving lunatic. Some countries would try collective government and then napoleon would be like. nah F this lets just conquer some stuff.
And there lies the weirdest part. How interconnected seemingly disparate kingdoms were. Napoleon famously not from the baltics, ran his huge army through the city i live, deep into the baltics. Denmark, known in modern times as the gateway to scandinavia - is physically the gateway to the baltic sea. AND st petersberg also... baltic port. So trading between these and britain and etc etc is very much a baltic issue.
And so me, thinking this was a history of the baltic clans like the semogitians, gets actually a much larger understanding of europe. This was a very good book. I am glad I slogged through the dry parts.
good job Alan.
June 22, 2018
I thought this book provided a really good, although dense, account of the history of the Scandinavian region. Personally, I do not find military history as fascinating as the social, political, and economic aspects of history. This book therefore suffered, in my opinion, from its focus on the military aspects of history in the region, despite how well military affairs may describe the regional history. I find the end of the book that discusses some of the social and political aspects in more detail more interesting, but overall the book is well written and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Baltic history.
July 5, 2024
I read this in 2009 and learned a lot from this survey of all the countries that touch the Baltic Sea. How much I retained is another question.
That was 15 years ago. Honestly, it is sort of depressing sitting here at age 68.
I do think this stuff will come back to me, if I need it.
That was 15 years ago. Honestly, it is sort of depressing sitting here at age 68.
I do think this stuff will come back to me, if I need it.
July 2, 2020
3.5 / 5* - I thought this was an adequate history of this fascinating region. A solid, well-documented account of conflicts, from Viking times to the fall of the USSR. But that's where it bogged down for me.
I was hoping for something that also captured social developments, the lives of writers and artists, and the cultural contributions of the Baltic region.
Instead, it was mainly a densely packed recounting of wars: wars between Sweden and Denmark, and Denmark and Sweden, and Germany too, most of which involved guys named Christian, Frederick, William or Charles, with the occasional Gustav thrown in for variety.
After a while, it sounded like the same wars fought over and over again for centuries. Keeping it all straight was like trying to assemble Swedish furniture.
A good overview of events in the region. But the writing was dry.
I was hoping for something that also captured social developments, the lives of writers and artists, and the cultural contributions of the Baltic region.
Instead, it was mainly a densely packed recounting of wars: wars between Sweden and Denmark, and Denmark and Sweden, and Germany too, most of which involved guys named Christian, Frederick, William or Charles, with the occasional Gustav thrown in for variety.
After a while, it sounded like the same wars fought over and over again for centuries. Keeping it all straight was like trying to assemble Swedish furniture.
A good overview of events in the region. But the writing was dry.
August 28, 2023
An acceptable overview of the history of Northern Europe. Book dragged often, and reflected prejudices of the author. For example, the impact of the Northern Crusades was evaluated strictly from the context of the extremist foreign invaders. We learned nothing about historical Baltic religion -- what they believed, why they believed it, how it interacted with the invader religious system, how their social systems morphed and evolved on contact with the invaders. The discussion of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Soviets at the end of the book was thorough and fair; the atrocities committed by the crusaders were mentioned in passing, an absolution by omission. Disappointing bias in an otherwise reasonable introduction.
March 4, 2018
I did not know much about the history of this region before reading this book. I found the book to be very informative and interesting. The confusing historical entities that come in go in this region, like the Duchy of Courland, were all explained and a clear understanding of the development of the region can be gleaned.
December 10, 2018
Exactly the type of overview history I was hoping to get when I picked up this book. I love reading books about topics I know little about and I learned a lot about the Baltic region. My only quibble would be that there was a lot more focus on recent history, so people like Gustavus Adolphus get skimmed over pretty quickly in only a few pages. The book reinforces my love of Finland too.
April 14, 2020
A bit dry at certain points but, an effective narrative of the history of the land around the Baltic Sea. Particularly good insights regarding the early modern conflicts between Sweden, Russia, and Denmark as well as the information on the interwar period in the Baltic States.
February 8, 2022
It's fine. There's a lot of information here and keeping up with all the Gustaves, Alexanders and Williams over the course of two thousand years was a chore. But my expectations were to learn more about the cultures and less about who they were fighting.
Also, no maps? No maps!
Also, no maps? No maps!
November 15, 2018
Excellent short history of the region. Perfect reading before a Baltic trip or cruse.
February 9, 2022
I stopped reading after 40 pages. The narrative was dry and difficult to follow.
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the Baltic. It was a disappointing read.
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the Baltic. It was a disappointing read.
October 20, 2025
Great overview of the history of the region.
July 29, 2011
Palmer does a good job of laying a basic narrative history of the Baltic Sea and the nations that straddle it (Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia). The book is organized chronologically and therefore skips back and forth between a number of narrative threads as they relate to the various countries covered in the book, which can make it difficult to keep track of eveything and everyone, but that is also an almost inevitable problem for a book of such scope and ambition.
My main complaint with the work as with many popular histroy is the excessive space given to high-profile modenr events and the corresponding brevity with earlier periods are treated. World Wars I and II consumer nearly 1/4 of the book's total page count, leading to certain key subjects (most notably the Soviet occupation of the Baltics as well as virtually all pre-18th century topics and devlopments), which seems a shame in that the popular histroy dealing with the Hanseatic League or the Kalamr Union is virtually non-existent in English as compared to the countless volumes that appear each and every year dealing with the two world wars.
Still, a good and engaging starting place for anyone interested in the region.
My main complaint with the work as with many popular histroy is the excessive space given to high-profile modenr events and the corresponding brevity with earlier periods are treated. World Wars I and II consumer nearly 1/4 of the book's total page count, leading to certain key subjects (most notably the Soviet occupation of the Baltics as well as virtually all pre-18th century topics and devlopments), which seems a shame in that the popular histroy dealing with the Hanseatic League or the Kalamr Union is virtually non-existent in English as compared to the countless volumes that appear each and every year dealing with the two world wars.
Still, a good and engaging starting place for anyone interested in the region.
August 20, 2012
Well, you can't say it doesn't give you a new history of the Baltic region and its people.
This book is expansive and thorough in its discussion of the Baltic countries from the arrival of man until the present day. It's long, filled with names and dates, and a little slow and confusing as a result, as there's a point in history where just about everyone is named Christian or Frederick. It helps to bring some knowledge of non-Baltic European history to the table (I hope you know what was going on in 1789) as it's assumed for the sake of brevity. The author is crazy about using the word "embryonic" for some reason. If you want an exhaustive history of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland, Prussia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in one book, this is a good way to go, but give yourself a LOT of time to read it before you get on your cruise.
This book is expansive and thorough in its discussion of the Baltic countries from the arrival of man until the present day. It's long, filled with names and dates, and a little slow and confusing as a result, as there's a point in history where just about everyone is named Christian or Frederick. It helps to bring some knowledge of non-Baltic European history to the table (I hope you know what was going on in 1789) as it's assumed for the sake of brevity. The author is crazy about using the word "embryonic" for some reason. If you want an exhaustive history of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland, Prussia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in one book, this is a good way to go, but give yourself a LOT of time to read it before you get on your cruise.
December 18, 2009
Well worth reading for anyone not familiar with the Baltic, though as with most histories, it concentrates almost
exclusively on wars and rulers without giving much a glimpse into the lives of everyday people. It is pretty dry in stretches, though it picks up a bit in places to keep the reader going. Finally, the author seems to assume one has knowledge of certain relatively arcane facts not necessarily explained (or not well) in the text, so if you're not a European history buff, you may be(like I was) a bit mystified at times.
exclusively on wars and rulers without giving much a glimpse into the lives of everyday people. It is pretty dry in stretches, though it picks up a bit in places to keep the reader going. Finally, the author seems to assume one has knowledge of certain relatively arcane facts not necessarily explained (or not well) in the text, so if you're not a European history buff, you may be(like I was) a bit mystified at times.
April 28, 2013
This book covers a wide sweep of the history of the Baltic from ancient times to the present. But it does it does not do it in a way that is easy to understand for someone know familiar with the history. He goes over too many details too quickly. I didn't retain much of what he said unless I had at least heard of some of the major leaders.
April 10, 2015
Focused on the political development of the Baltic this book was a welcome quick intro to a part of the world I didn't know much about. Vikings, Teutonic knights, the Northern Crusade, trade battles and the fall of the Soviet Union, this book helped fill a lot of holes in my understanding of European history.
December 12, 2015
Extremely informative overview of the history of all "Nations" bordering the Baltic Sea including ones like Norway Germany Polnd that we don't automatically recognize as "Baltic". Makes me hungry for further investigation. Also makes me realize how Western Europe focused our perspective is biased.
September 2, 2008
Thorough, if not somewhat boring history of the region. It does actually get exciting!
January 27, 2009
Invaluable for perspective on twentieth-century and post-Cold War conflicts in Central and Eastern Europe.
Want to read
January 24, 2012On page 60
February 13, 2016
A truly fascinating account and is one of those books that it's good to have an iPad or computer nearby to further research the interesting characters or events in the Baltic's rich history.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews