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Heart of Europe

A History of the Holy Roman Empire

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Heart of Europe

By: Peter H. Wilson
Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.

Heart of Europe traces the empire from its origins within Charlemagne's kingdom in 800 to its demise in 1806. By the mid-tenth century, its core rested in the German kingdom, and ultimately its territory stretched from France and Denmark to Italy and Poland. Yet the empire remained abstract, with no fixed capital and no common language or culture. The source of its continuity and legitimacy was the ideal of a unified Christian civilization, but this did not prevent emperors from clashing with the pope over supremacy. Though the title of Holy Roman Emperor retained prestige, rising states such as Austria and Prussia wielded power in a way the empire could not. While it gradually lost the flexibility to cope with political, economic, and social changes, the empire was far from being in crisis until the onslaught of the French revolutionary wars.

©2016 Peter H. Wilson (P)2017 Tantor Europe Germany Medieval Modern Middle Ages Western Europe War Imperialism Italy Royalty Renaissance Refugee Latin American Socialism Ancient History Law Russia
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Critic reviews

"Hugely impressive...Wilson is an assured guide through the millennium-long labyrinth of papal - imperial relations." ( Literary Review)
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Two problems:
- Narator sounds artificial like from an action movie trailer.
- Lots of jumping between names and one period to another, it's hard to keep track if you are not closely familiar with history of HRE.

Bad narator and not really suited for audiobook

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Terrible narrator with weirdly aggressive way of pronouncing German names and terms. The book itself is very interesting,but difficult to listen to.

Great content, weak narration

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This is a detailed and compelling history of the Holy Roman Empire, ruined by truly terrible narration. It's so bad it would be funny, except you've spent money on a performance that would shame a 12 year old's drama recital. Do yourself and favour and buy the actual book - you just can't get into it otherwise

Great history, dire narration

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This is not what I had expected: it’s historiography rather than the narrative survey I hoped for and for that reason I am abandoning the book.
Surely if you’re dealing with a major chunk of Europe comprising many cultures, over a period of more than a millennium it is just a little lazy and irresponsible merely to dip in and out of the story with airy opinions; how can such an approach be safe from unsubstantiated statements , and based on what?
Perhaps, if you have a degree in the history of the ‘empire’ you may find this approach satisfactory but for someone in search of a detailed and co-ordinated survey the book is a disappointment. In 34 hours I should have thought the author would have had sufficient time to do that. I think there is an arrogance about the author’s approach, whether Otis fashionable or not and I do not recommend it for an informed and interested reader.
The reading itself is competent but, to my experienced ear, just a tad stilted.

Not a narrative survey.

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What three words best describe Napoleon Ryan’s performance?

I have no idea why the narrator insists on pronouncing some words very rapidly in a mock German accent, as if he is a cartoon general. It's really frustrating when these are titles of characters and institutions as it makes it hard to understand some fairly complex German.

A comprehensive history of the HRE.

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