One can travel in physical space – most of us do that every day, flitting around between home, work and other points marked on our timetable. But, one can travel in time too. This is the domain of historians, who make the past come alive for us and explain its relevance for the modern age. Norman Davies masterfully combines the spatial aspects with the temporal aspects. He takes the Reader on an exciting journey across continents having rich and unusual histories: from Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates
and Kuala Lumpur, onwards to far-away Mauritius, mysterious Tasmania and New Zealand, while also visiting much tamer places
(but which still seem rather exotic to most of us) such as Texas, New York, Madrid or Frankfurt. His reflections on the places he visits and his impressions as a tourist are enriched by his perspective as a historian pointing out intriguing events from the past, while ceaselessly paying attention to details and any other factors that have a causal impact on history. He proves that travelling to places is a formative experience – one just has to make the conscious decision to step outside the comfort zone of hotel spaces, and then take a good look around.
The latest addition to Norman Davies’s extensive literary output is a new way of describing Global History, as well as a new way of looking at Europe itself.
