This entertaining book offers an overview of European history, demonstrating how the major influences on civilization — from the Ancient Greeks to Christianity to the Scientific Revolution — have woven together to create modern Europe.

When you hear the phrase 'European culture,' you might think of Italian frescos or London's Big Ben.

But Europe was formed by seismic cultural, political, and religious factors, which in turn shaped the history of the world.

John Hirst was a notable Australian historian and public intellectual.

In this 2018 reissue of his 2009 book, The Shortest History of Europe, Hirst takes us on a whistlestop tour of the most important forces acting on European history.

Hirst shows how three major factors — the Classical learning of Ancient Greece and Rome, Christianity, and the culture of invading German warriors — formed an odd and uneasy mixture that still influences Europe to this day.