Category: Books I Recommend

Sixty years of vintage… Often reduced to ancient history, modern Greece also offers much to help understand Europe. The country has given birth to fascinating personalities. Giannis Boutaris is one of them. Initially, I bought the book to learn more about his life as a politician, because as the mayor of the city from 20211-2019,…

Three academic researchers write about the heritage of the person who has shaped Barcelona as we know it today: its former mayor, Pasqual Maragall. A visionary European who knew how to project the city internationally via the Olympic Games. A committed pacifist who supported and helped shape the peace process in the Balkans. Maragall was…

The Bible, the Torah, and the Epic of Gilgamesh – this book sheds light on the origins of Western civilisation and its economy. Written in 2013, it struck right into the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the debate over whether debt was or was not a sign of moral weakness. It is one…

Among European editors, the British definitely mastered the art of book editing and printing. This beautifully designed book has a page or more for the history of each colour.Our relationship with colours is, to a significant degree, an unconscious one. We may have one or two preferred ones, but do we know the history or…

I bought this book as a step to learn about my ancestors who emigrated from Graubünden, Switzerland, 300 years ago. It is a thoroughly researched book on emigration waves from the villages around Trien, Flix, and Chur, when hunger struck the inhabitants of this part of the Alps. Surprisingly, they often found their luck abroad…

In contrast to Instructions for British Servicemen in Germany 1944, the style of this guide is radically different. British soldiers stationed in France were to be prepared for fraternisation with the French. While reading, it becomes clear that due to the long history of wars and rivalries between France and Great Britain, this was by…

After Germany repeatedly started aggressive wars in 1870, 1914 and 1939, this handbook is evidence of how British troops were given detailed instructions not to allow the defeated Germans to forget their political actions and remilitarise the country once again. In this book, the Foreign Office gives soldiers stationed in Germany clear, step-by-step instructions on…

The fact that this book was written collectively, namely by three people, fits the subject of shared memories of socialism. The unique perspective of the East German women, which is lovingly introduced to the reader, is a cultural revelation. The trialogue format reads smoothly, and while reading, one involuntarily transforms oneself into an invisible listener…

This book was written by Egon Seefehlner (born 1912 in Vienna), who was first a young law student, an aspiring Austrian diplomat and later director of Berlin Deutsche Oper during the wall and the Wiener Staatsoper. He was one of my great-uncles. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Anschluss of Austria by…