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No historian in his or her right mind would tackle such a gargantuan hunk of history as the whole of European politics, society, culture, and war since the beginning of time, write a book about it, and entitle it Europe: A History. This is not to say Norman Davies is not in his right mind. It's just that his effort here is less a magnum opus than a rush through the quirks of the ever-influential amalgamation of countries called Europe. There's plenty on which to seize, and Davies does so with a flair for style and an eye for the peculiar rarely exhibited by those who normally concern themselves with recording history.

The New York Times Book Review, Theodore Raab:
... an eccentric but often vigorously written introduction to the European past, enlivened with telling insights, apt quotations and excellent quick overviews of such topics as the Crusades and the Hanseatic League ...