“Kingdoms of Europe: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ruling Monarchs from Ancient Times to the Present”, by Gene Gurney

 

627 pages, Crown Publishers, ISBN-13: 978-0517543955

Man, did I hate high school, and I couldn’t wait to get paroled – er, graduate. In my junior year (that would be 1989) I went on a school band trip to Arizona and San Francisco, and it tells you something that the highlight for me was in buying Kingdoms of Europe: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ruling Monarchs from Ancient Times to the Present by Gene Gurney. This book was already seven years old when I bought it but still current, which one can no longer say; however, keeping in mind that everything up until the 80s is still accurate, there’s no reason to pick one up for yourself. I look back at that time and still marvel at my relative ignorance, for when I cracked open this book and began reading, I still recall the rush I still felt at discovering new facts and discovering interesting people from the far and near past. Every nation in Europe is given a brief once-over – even nations that no longer exist, like the Roman and Ottoman Empires – with the smaller, easily forgotten countries given their due – like Andorra, for instance.

Seeing as the title of the book is Kingdoms of Europe, the focus is rather old-school, on the monarchs that reigned and ruled over these countries from the mists of myth to the klieg-lights of modern-day celebrity culture; thus, the lives of these monarchs serves as the driving force for the narrative, with their words and deeds serving to propel their kingdoms forwards or, just as likely, drive them back. Anyone looking for insights into the everyday lives of the peasants who toiled in the fields or a social history of the differing classes in these kingdoms will be sorely disappointed. Besides that, there are thousands of pictures and photographs spread throughout the book, illustrating, literally, just what it is the author is talking about (several of these are hand-drawings that I have never seen anywhere else; looking at them again in preparing for this review was like seeing long-lost friends).

Kingdoms of Europe is a great introductory work on European history, constrained as it is by focusing on royalty and by its own datedness. No matter: pick one up, crack it open and get straightened out as to just who ruled what and when.