How wrong I turned out to be.

Anyone who is a citizen of a European country should read this book. It will not only tell them some history about their own country, but put that history into the objective context of Europe too.

Hitchcock's analysis of each country, and themes (such as the rollback of Communism, the maturing of dictatorships into democracies) across more than one country is engaging, for the most part highly readable - and goes a long way to dispelling the myth that Americans are isolationists with nothing meaningful to say about the world beyond their coastline.

Europe, whether as the Euorpean Union collectively, or the individual countries on their own, has made very considerable strides since 1945. What a different geographic, demographic and political landscape we now live in - as compared to 60 years ago. We are lucky that Hitchcock has taken the time and trouble to remind us of this.