Status Updates From Die Geschichte der Deutschen

So far it has been an excellent book and afai can tell, a fair one. Rovans Catholic convert bias seems to creep in a little bit when talking about Frederick II. It was noticeable how much vitriol he poured, denying any trace of humanistic intentions (he outlawed torture 3 days into his reign), calling him "that nihilist", while praising the Catholic habsburgs of the same time immensely for their sense of humanity.

History of the holy Roman empire is wild. The German emperors tend to want to assert dominance in Italy to underline their legal status as emperor, meanwhile often neglecting affairs in the northalpine territories. According to rovan this was elemental in Germany not developing a centralized nationhood. The conflict just intensifies when the pope asserts more claims over the emperors administrative elite(clerus).

Too early to say for sure, but while he seems to have a tiny french bias in the sense of "enlightenment France carried the torch of civilization", uses the term barbarian a tad often and perhaps as a converted Catholic got a sweet spot for catholicism, so far it is a really vigorous and profound history. A good book for spreading one's biases and learning a decent deal. It's still an overview but so far 4.4/5